The 11th-seeded Mississippi State women’s tennis team dropped a hard-fought 4-1 decision to sixth-seeded Auburn Thursday morning in the opening round of the SEC Women’s Tennis Championship in Columbia, S.C. The Lady Dogs end the season at 5-16, while AU improves to 14-7 on the year and will face third-seeded Vanderbilt in Friday’s second round.
Head coach Tracy Lane’s Lady Dogs had chances to win the match, but the Lady Tigers fought off MSU rallies to claim the win.
“This was a match we could have won,” Lane said. “We came up short. That’s something we’ve done on several occasions this season.
“We have shown much improvement over the past six months, however.”
Auburn took the early lead by sweeping doubles contests at the No. 2 and 3 positions. Sarah Suitor and Liz Sauerborn knocked off Elaine Fagan and Justyna Switala 8-3 at the No. 3 position. AU took the 1-0 edge as Carolina Ramirez and Petra Bercik held off State’s Magdolna Rekasi and Camila Sagae in 8-5 fashion.
Auburn took its momentum into singles action and quickly extended its lead with Bercik’s 6-0, 6-1 win over Rekasi at the No. 2 spot.
Maurer put AU a point from the match win as she held off Fagan 6-3, 6-4.
State did not go down easily, however. Senior Carole Soubis kept the Lady Bulldog netters alive with her win at No. 1 over Katia Illarionova.
Soubis won the first set in a tiebreak, and she then clinched the match when Illarionova retired in the second.
Carolina Ramirez had to go the full three sets of her No. 3 singles match with Sagae to seal the win for Auburn.
Ramirez rolled 6-0 in the opening set, but Sagae rebounded in the second 6-1 to force the third and deciding set.
Ramirez held on to claim the final set 6-4 and seal the match with a 6-0, 1-6, 6-4 win.