The Auburn Women's Tennis team defeated No. 28 Louisiana State University 4-0 last weekend at the 2010 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Kickoff in Los Angeles before being defeated 4-0 by No. 9 University of Southern California.
Seniors Fani Chifchieva and Jil Hastenrath were victorious in No. 2 doubles, beating the LSU pair 8-4.
Chifchieva was selected as an All American last year.
No. 3 Plamena Kurteva and Paulina Schippers defeated the LSU No. 3 team 8-5.
Head coach Tim Gray said knocking off LSU was a highlight from the weekend, and the team's doubles were impressive.
"Any time you beat a ranked team as good as LSU, it's a nice win," Gray said. "We had a lot of bright spots, but our No. 3 doubles is undefeated."
Saturday, the team of Myrthe Molenveld and Caroline Thornton were defeated by the USC team 8-3. Following, Fani Chifchieva and Jil Hastenrath were defeated 8-4. The only victory for the day was the No. 3 doubles team of Plamena Kurteva and Paulina Schippers.
Sophomore Taylor Schreimann said the positive energy going into the match helped motivate the team to conquer LSU. The win showed the team was stronger than everyone was expecting them to be, she said.
"After our first doubles win, we were all so excited," Schreimann said. "After that, we were motivated for the rest of the match against LSU."
Chifchieva said she thought the team stayed positive and motivated throughout the weekend. She said Saturday the girls' did well, but the other team played better in some parts.
"I was a little nervous," Chifchieva said. "I started playing better as the match went."
Chifchieva said winning Friday was great and beating LSU 4-0 was not easy.
Gray said the weekend was an interesting mix of emotions because some older members of the team were forced to play higher after last year's graduation. Gray also said he felt the team could have done better playing against Southern California.
"We've got a group of new, young freshmen," Gray said. "It's interesting to see how they respond to pressure."
Gray went on to say that not one person stood out during the weekend, but all the players competed well.
"Everyone did what we asked them to do," Gray said. "In terms of the weekend itself, we seemed like we were almost in midseason form this early, which is definitely a good thing."
Gray said to end the weekend score of one and one was a success.
"A lot of people thought we were going to have a down year," Gray said. "To come and beat a team that is 28th in country I definitely feel is a success."
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