In its last home game of the season, the No. 29 Auburn women's tennis team fell to the No. 13 Tennessee.
Whitney Chappell and Alex Haney got the only doubles win of the match for Auburn, 9-8 (7-4), Sunday at the Yarborough Tennis Center. In singles, Haney, a senior, ended her home season with a win over Natalie Pluskota, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Haney, with 111 wins in her time at Auburn, is the all-time singles leader in Auburn tennis history and the second All-American in school history. Auburn's Fani Chifchieva defeated Caitlin Whoriskey, 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (10-7).
In the other singles matches, Chappell was defeated by Samantha Orlin 6-0, 6-1; Myrthe Molenveld was defeated by Jennifer Meredith 6-2, 6-3; Daniela Vukadinovic lost to Rosalia Alda 6-0, 6-2; and Jil Hastenrath lost to Zsofia Zubor 6-3, 6-2. In doubles, Alda and Zubor defeated Molenveld and Vukadinovic 8-3, and Maria Sorbello and Jennifer Meredith defeated Chifchieva and Hastenrath 8-6.
The two seniors, Chappell and Haney, were honored before the start of the match.
"It was really exciting," Chappell said. "We had good fan support today. Everybody's family members were here, and everybody was really into it and excited and fired up. It was a good match for us."
Haney said it was a bittersweet experience.
"It's definitely a sad time, but I was excited to get out there and show what I've learned," Haney said. "I was excited to get on the doubles court and play with Whitney. It was good that we were playing together, two seniors."
Chappell said she and Haney played their doubles match well.
"We faltered a little in the middle, but they played very well, and we clinched it in the end," Chappell said.
Chappell said her singles opponent made a good effort.
"I played pretty good in singles, but the girl that I played just played lights out," Chappell said.
Auburn women's tennis head coach Tim Gray agreed Tennessee played well.
"First of all, hats off to Tennessee, they played very well. I thought they played extremely well," Gray said. "We had some chances in the doubles for sure at two and three and break point opportunities to maybe take a lead or at least get us a little closer at two and three and we just didn't convert, so we've got to do a better job of taking care of those opportunities when we create them."
Haney said she thinks the match went well.
"We had some opportunities," Haney said. "We didn't capitalize on all of them. We played good in some positions, and hopefully, if we play them again, it'll be the other way."
The team has three away games this weekend, with South Carolina Friday, Florida Sunday and they wrap things up with Alabama.
"We just treat every match the same and kind of go one at a time," Gray said. "We've just got to keep working, (we've got) two tough matches coming up this weekend with South Carolina and Florida. We'll try to prepare some specific things for those matches, but otherwise just keep working hard and focusing on the fundamentals."
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