Auburn women's tennis kicked off the 2013 season by picking up their first victory against DePaul this weekend at the ITA kick-off tournament, but the Tigers also got their first loss.
The Tigers performed well on Sunday, going 4-0 by winning both the singles and doubles points handily. This came after a 4-0 loss to 8th ranked UNC Tar Heels on Saturday.
"It was a positive weekend for us. We showed a lot of toughness on an indoor surface," said Lauren Longbotham, coach of the Auburn women's tennis team.
Normally, Auburn's team practices outdoors on clay, a completely different surface than the hard indoor courts they faced this weekend. Style of play completely changes from clay to hard courts.
Notwithstanding, junior Jackie Kasler and sophomore Emily Flickinger highlighted the weekend by winning their doubles matches against both UNC and DePaul. Flickinger also completed the weekend by besting Depaul's Ana Vladutu, 6-2, 6-2 in singles play.
Meanwhile freshman MichalaKucharova came back from a 4-1 deficit to win her match against Depaul's Patricia Fargas, winning the overall match as well. UNC's Gina Suarez-Malaguti is the 11th ranked player in the country, but freshman PleunBurgmans, up 6-3, 4-3, at one point, nearly pulled off an upset during their match.
This kind of fire and ability encourages Longbotham. With freshmen in the one and two spots on the team, the women's tennis team is young, but Longbotham said leadership from a returning core of upper classmen is the team's greatest strength.
"It's good to have that kind of support and guidance from older players, especially with a young team," Longbotham said.
Another factor is the team's depth.
"In my 10 years here, this is by far the hardest time I've had picking a line-up," Longbotham said. "It's a good problem to have."
It seems both the future and present are bright for a youthful team brimming with talent.
The final confidence booster for the team going into February is their schedule, which boasts home games for the rest of the month.
Next weekend, the women's tennis team will take on Georgia Southern Saturday, at noon, and Alabama A&M Sunday, at 6 p.m. Admittance is free, and the matches are at the Yarbrough Tennis Center on Richland. For those wanting to watch the Super Bowl as well, the football game will be displayed on televisions at the match.
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