The No. 39 Auburn Men's Tennis team celebrated Saturday after it defeated the No. 29 Crimson Tide in the Tigers' last regular season match.
Freshmen doubles team, Tim Hewitt and Lucas Lopasso, started the Tigers off well, defeating Jarryd Both and Trey Walston of Alabama, 8-5.
Following Hewitt and Lopasso, freshmen Andreas Mies and Alexander Sajonz squared off against Alabama's Ricky Doverspike and Michael Thompson, who gave Alabama an 8-4 win.
"We won the doubles point, which was nice to see," said coach Eric Shore of the 8-4 Auburn win in the final doubles match between junior Tim Puetz and sophomore Alex Stamchev of Auburn and Michael Davis and Saketh Myneni of Alabama.
Alabama took the first and second singles victory with Botha besting Lopasso in two sets, 6-1, 6-0, followed by Myneni beating Puetz in their two sets, 6-1, 6-4. These two victories put Alabama ahead, 2-1, until Auburn jumped ahead with consecutive victories from Mies over Davis, 6-4, 6-4, and Hewitt over Thompson, 7-6, 6-2.
With Auburn ahead, 3-2, all eyes were on the final two matches of the day.
A match between Alabama's Houssam Yassine and Auburn's Oliver Strecker came down to a third set. The last set tied the teams, 3-3, as Yassine edged out Strecker, 6-3.
The final match of the day determined the winner of the in-state show down.
Stamchev came out strong against Doverspike and took the first set, 7-6.
However, Stamchev fell to Doverspike the second set, 6-2.
With the team's fate in his hands, Stamchev won the final set easily with a 6-1 victory to win the set and match for Auburn.
"It was absolutely satisfying to beat Alabama, and to beat them at home," Puetz said. "We didn't play well in some spots, and in others we played really well, but all that matters is we got the win."
The 4-3 victory brought Auburn's overall record to 9-11, with a 5-6 record in the SEC, and sealed Auburn's No. 6 seed in the upcoming SEC tournament.
"A number of guys impressed me," Shore said. "But the way Alex Stamchev finished off his match to get the win was great."
With this morale boosting win under its belt, Auburn is busy preparing for the SEC tournament April 22-25, held in Lexington, Ky., with an opening match up against Arkansas.
"We've played an extremely tough schedule this year, and we are hoping to continue to improve our record," Shore said. "Arkansas is a tough team. Hopefully we won't have a let down, and we can continue from there."
If the team plans to go far in the tournament, Puetz said there is one thing that needs to improve.
"We need to work on our doubles," Puetz said. "It's just going to get tougher, and we need these doubles points to win."
The team also looks forward to NCAA tournament play, pending official announcement in early May.
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