GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Women’s Tennis Team (4-2, 0-1) opened the SEC portion of its schedule Saturday, hosting #13 Auburn, but the Tigers (16-1, 1-0) broke a 2-2 tie by winning the final three singles matches of the afternoon to walk away with the 5-2 victory.

Doubles

Auburn picked up the doubles point thanks to a pair of 6-3 wins. Ekaterina Khairutdinova and Ashton Bowers topped India Houghton and Lucia Pawlak at number three, while DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito did likewise against (#23) Xinyi Nong and Nikola Daubnerova in the top spot. Valery Gynina and Brooke Black were leading (#86) Angella Okutoyi and Merna Refaat 5-4 at number two doubles when Auburn clinched the point.

Singles

(#27) Esposito bested (#97) Nong at number six singles, 6-3, 6-0 to put the Tigers up 2-0, before Black got the Gators on the board with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Refaat at number four. It was the third straight dual match win for the freshman who improved to 4-2 in the year.(#23) Gabia Paskauskas helped Florida tie the match at two apiece following her 6-0, 6-4 win over (#95) Okutoyi at number three. The sophomore is now 3-1 in dual matches this spring and 12-4 overall. The tie wash short-lived, however, as Bowers put Auburn back on top with a 6-4, 6-4 win over (#80) Pawlak, and (#37) Bennett clinched the match for the Tigers when she completed her 6-3, 6-3 victory over (#54) Gynina at number one. All that remained was the hotly-contested number two singles match between Houghton and Khairutdinova. Khairutdinova took the first set in a tiebreak 7-6 (7-3) before concluding the day with a 7-5 win in set number two.

                  

Florida	4-2, 0-1
Auburn (#13)	16-1, 1-0

FINAL RESULTS
Singles

1	#37	DJ Bennett (AUB)	def.	#54	Valery Gynina (UF)	6-3, 6-3
2		Ekaterina Khairutdinova (AUB)	def.		India Houghton (UF)	7-6 (7-3), 7-5
3	#23	Gabia Paskauskas (UF)	def.	#95	Angella Okutoyi (AUB)	6-0, 6-4
4		Brooke Black (UF)	def.		Merna Refaat (AUB)	6-4, 6-2
5	#26	Ashton Bowers (AUB)	def.	#80	Lucie Pawlak (UF)	6-4, 6-4
6	#27	Ava Esposito (AUB)	def.	#97	Xinyi Nong (UF)	6-3, 6-0
Order of Finish         6, 4, 3, 5, 1, 2

Doubles 

1	xxx	Bennett/Ava Esposito (AU)	def.	#23	Nong / Daubnerova (UF)	6-3
2		Gynina / Black (UF)	unf.	#86	Okutoyi / Refaat (AU)	5-4
3		Khairutdinova / Bowers (AU)	def.		Houghton / Pawlak (UF)	6-3
Order of Finish         3, 1

FROM THE GATORS’ MOUTHS
Head Coach Per Nilsson on the match …

“[Today] was a mixed bag. We’re playing Auburn who in one of the rankings is number one in the country, and we know they have a good team, and that’s where we want to be. So in one way its good to see how we compare to them, but we feel like we need to be beating them. We have to have a complete match to have a shot at it, and I don’t think we played a complete match. Doubles was not clean at all, and then we gave away two or three sets in singles, and against a good team that will get you. We’re battling hard in a lot of the matches. and that gives us a chance. You feel like you have a shot, but nothing can go wrong when you have a few sets that you give away. You can’t do that against those teams.”

Head Coach Per Nilsson on the highlight performances from the match …

“Brooke taking on a highly-skilled player does her thing. She’s only been here for five weeks so that’s really good. Gabs [Gabis Paskauskas] had probably one of her best wins in college, taking care of business like that. And India, she didn’t pull out the win, but she hasn’t played a lot of matches, and that’s why we played it out today, because we really needed her to finish. She’s up 5-3, 40 love in the first set. She has that in her bag and she needs to be able to finish that off. I know she’s going to compete, but she’s got to play positive points when it matters.

UP NEXT
The Gators take on Bethune-Cookman (0-1) Sunday, Feb. 22 at 1 p.m. EST at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
 
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