Auburn University Team Page
STARKVILLE, Miss. – No. 19 Auburn Women’s Tennis had its run at the SEC Tennis Championship come to an end on Friday with a 4-0 loss to fourth-ranked Texas A&M.
“You have to give credit to Texas A&M tonight, but I'm proud of the way we battled and we made them earn this win,” Auburn women’s tennis head coach Lauren Longbotham Meisner said. “We weren't going to go down without a fight and we've battled like that all year. We got a big win at No. 1 doubles and Pleun was very close again to another top win at No. 1 singles. We are going to take a couple of days off to recharge and then we are going to be excited to go into NCAAs and make a good run."
Auburn (18-8) fell behind 2-0 when Plamena Kurteva dropped her match in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1 to Stefania Hristov. The Aggies made it a 3-0 advantage with a 6-4, 6-2 loss by Michala Kucharova to Nazari Urbina.
From there things got interesting as the three remaining matches all made it to a third set, but Emily Flickinger was ultimately defeated 1-6, 7-5, 1-6 on court two to conclude the match 4-0 in favor of the Aggies.
No. 23 Freshman Pleun Burgmans was on track for the win over ITA No. 4 Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar before play was concluded. Burgmans took the first set 6-2, before dropping the second and was up 5-1 at the stoppage.
Texas A&M came away with a tough doubles point for a 1-0 lead when Ines and Paula Deheza defeated the Auburn duo of Paulina Schippers and Jen Pfeifler, 8-5, at the third line. The Aggies had previously won on court two, 8-6.
Auburn’s 11th-ranked duo of Burgmans and Kurteva kept the Tigers in the mix for the doubles point with an 8-6 win on the first court.
Auburn will now await an at-large bid to the 2013 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship. For the latest on Auburn women’s tennis, follow @AUWomensTennis on Twitter.
