The No. 34 Auburn Women's Tennis team (32) was back in action, defeating the Alabama A&M Bulldogs 7-0 Saturday afternoon at the Yarbrough Tennis Center after playing in California the weekend before.
"Last weekend was rough," said senior Myrthe Molenveld. "We ended on a tough note and knew we had to fix some things before heading into the game against Alabama A&M and give it our all from the start."
The Tigers won all nine matches and only gave up two points the entire day.
"We played solid today," said head coach Tim Gray. "This was a nice win. We wanted to work on something that we focused on this week and I think we saw some progress today, so it was a good day for us."
Myrthe Molenveld and freshman Caroline Thornton started the day by taking the No. 1 doubles match-up 8-0 against sophomore Te'Isha Mixon and freshman Shannon Warner.
"I was a little nervous at
first, to be honest," Molenveld said. "But once I got on the court I was able to turn it into excitement and focused on the things I worked on in practice this week which definitely paid off."
No. 2 doubles was won by seniors Fani Chifchieva and Jil Hastenrath, who beat the tandem of freshman Denise Cherry and senior Brittany Jelks 8-0 while the freshman duo Plamena Kurteva and Paulina Schippers beat sophomore Jasmine Cherry and senior Alison Gladness 8-1 in the No. 3 doubles match-up.
"We've been putting a lot of time in on doubles play, and we want to see the girls implement the changes we make in competition," Gray said. "I feel like we're seeing some progress that we can build on the rest of the season."
Auburn continued to dominate throughout singles action where all six Tigers swept their opponents.
Molenveld defeated Te'Isha Mixon, Chifchieva defeated Denis Cherry, freshman Carolina Thornton defeated Shannon Warner, sophomore Daniela Vukadinovic defeated Brittany Jelks, freshman Paulina Schippers defeated Jasmine Cherry, and senior Jil Hastenrath defeated Alison Gladness.
"One of our biggest goals this year is to continuously make improvements, both in singles and doubles," Molenveld said. "If we continue to make improvements like we have been and we can keep everybody injury free, we can look forward
to some exciting SEC match-ups this March."
The Tigers' next opponent is the Jacksonville State University Gamecocks (0-1) who lost their first match 7-0 against defending NAIA National Champion Auburn University at Montgomery.
The Tigers host the Gamecocks Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
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