The Auburn women’s tennis team lost a narrow contest to second-ranked Texas A&M on April 2, with the final score 4-3 at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station. The deciding point came at the No. 6 singles position, where Anna Perelman of Texas A&M defeated Auburn’s Alice Battesti in three sets.
The match was significant for both teams as they compete for top positions in the Southeastern Conference standings. Auburn now holds a record of 26-3 overall and is second in SEC play at 10-2, trailing Texas A&M by one match.
Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo said, “Really tough one to stomach. We put ourselves in a really good position that we wanted to be in, and we really couldn’t sprint through the finish line. We’re still searching to find three doubles teams and six singles courts to show up against the good teams. It’s hard to give away points against good teams on the road.”
Szabo also said, “All of our goals are still ahead of us. We have ways to coach better, get better and improve. That will give us an opportunity to be where we deserve to be. I feel like our best tennis is still in front of us, but we have to learn from these really tough lessons.”
Auburn claimed the doubles point after wins by Angella Okutoyi/Merna Refaat and DJ Bennett/Ava Esposito over their Aggie opponents. In singles play, Refaat gave Auburn an early lead with a straight-set win before Okutoyi extended it further with another victory.
Texas A&M then rallied with victories by Daria Smetannikov and Lucciana Perez—currently ranked as the nation’s top singles player—to tie the score at three matches each before Perelman’s clinching win.
Looking ahead, Auburn will face No. 6 Texas next at the Texas Tennis Center in Austin.
