The No. 57 Auburn Women's Tennis (9-9, 3-7 SEC) team shattered its three match SEC losing streak with a sweep of then No. 66 Mississippi State Bulldogs (9-10, 1-8 SEC) Sunday afternoon, 6-1.
Auburn finished the day winning eight of nine matches, including all three of its doubles matches.
The Tigers had a chip on their shoulders after dropping Friday's close match, 4-3, to the No. 18 Ole Miss Rebels (13-4, 7-3 SEC).
Auburn head coach Tim Gray said the doubles victory of senior Mrythe Molenveld and freshman Paulina Schippers over the Rebels' No. 13 doubles team in the country, Kristi Boxx and Karen Njissen, gave the team a needed boost of confidence for Sunday's match.
"The fact that we knocked them off," Gray said, "we really kind of felt like we had some momentum coming into the doubles today."
The Tigers excelled in the doubles as Molenveld and Schippers kept their winning streak alive by taking down Radka Fernacova and Danielle Terpko, 9-7.
Seniors Fani Chifchieva and Jil Hastenrath tacked on a easy win at 8-1 against Natalia Mayuk and Olesya Tsigintseva.
Freshmen Caroline Thornton and Plamena Kurteva fought hard against Valeriya Makarycheva and Mariia Ryzhova to eventually win, 7-2, in a tiebreaker match.
During the intermission Gray spoke to his team about rallying together and finishing the match strong.
"I just challenged them to go out there and work hard," Gray said. "And that's what they did and we looked a lot more solid in the singles."
The Tigers continued to dominate the courts as Auburn won five out of their six singles matches.
Schippers finished first and defeated Terpko, 6-0, 6-1.
No. 54 Chifchieva finished closely behind beating Tsigintseva, 6-2, 6-0, and Molenveld defeated Mayuk, 6-0, 6-3.
Hastenrath defeated Makarycheva, 6-1, 6-3, and sophomore Daniela Vukadinovic defeated Fernacova, 6-3, 6-0, to wrap up the afternoon match.
"I'm really proud of the effort and the way we were able to turn it around," Hastenrath said. "We came out strong today, and we struggled in the doubles points, but everybody came fired up in the singles and did a solid job."
Auburn will return to the to the Yarbrough Tennis Center Saturday at 6 p.m. to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide (9-11, 2-8 SEC), which is coming off a 4-1 loss to the Rebels.
"When it comes down to it, it's going to be who wants it more on the game day," Gray said. "They're a very good team and they're a very dangerous team. Hopefully we want it a little bit more and were willing to work hard. If we don't come out and work hard, it's going to be a long day for us."
The Tide came into the 2010 season ranked No. 25, after one of its best seasons in program history.
Despite suffering numerous injuries to key players, Alabama head coach Jenny Mainz said she is proud of her team's effort to finish the season strong.
"It's been a season filled with adversity," Mainz said. "We've had some misfortunes with some pretty key injuries that have kind of deterred the season, but I think our team has proven to be very resilient."
With the chances of Alabama making into the SEC Championships looking bleak, Mainz said her squad will bring their best and look to get one last win for the season.
"Were coming in as the underdog for sure," Mainz said, "but every week you have to go out there and battle. We always battle with you guys every year regardless of who's up or who's down. I think that's indicative of the magnitude of the match and the rivalry."
With Saturday's match being senior day and the last home match before the Tigers head to the SEC Championship in Athens, Ga., Chifchieva said the team will have to keep working on being aggressive and attacking the opponent if they want to take down the Tide.
"I will be extremely happy if we beat Bama," Chifchieva said. "It's my senior day, so I'll be very happy if we can do that."
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