Auburn women's tennis team is now 5-1 after defeating No. 62 Georgia State and unranked Samford in a doubleheader at home on Saturday at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
"Georgia State is a solid team and I think they fight really hard," said Auburn women's tennis coach Lauren Longbotham Meisner. "We were ready for it to be a battle and we were pretty prepared. I think we came out a little flatter than I wanted to in the doubles, but once the nerves shook off and we got ourselves together we really started rolling. I thought we did really well."
The highlight of the match occurred when freshman Pleun Burgmans went 6-1 and 6-0 against the ITA 29 player, Abigail Tere-Apisah in the singles competition, finishing in the number one position.
The Tigers overcame the Georgia State Panthers 6-1 making Auburn 6-0 all-time against the team.
Junior Jackie Kasler and sophomore Emily Flickinger contributed to this win by outscoring Whitney Byrd and Maryna Kozachenko 8-4 in the doubles competition. This victory makes the duo 4-0 for the season.
We knew Georgia State was going to be a really tough team so we just came out with a lot of energy and tried to fight hard," Flickinger said. "We had a really good week at practice. Our coach had us focus on the important things we needed to improve on from last week and it really paid off."
Also in the doubles competition, sophomore Jen Pfeifler and senior Paulina Schippers defeated their opponents, Jocelyn Ffiend and Linn Timmerman of Georgia State 8-3 in the match opener.
In the singles competition, Flickinger, Pfiefler, Kasler and senior Plamena Kurteva all defeated their opponents ensuring the Tigers victory against the Panthers.
Auburn's victory over Georgia State is their second ranked win this year.
"Pleun Burgmans beating the number 29 player in the country in that fashion is very, very impressive," said Meisner. "I think Burgmans and Flickinger stuck out today, but every girl dug in when it wasn't that easy and put together some good points in games that were very difficult."
Later that day, the Tigers won their second match, defeating Samford 4-0. The Tigers are now 9-0 all-time against the Bulldogs.
Kurteva and Schippers defeated Samford's AnnMarie Lyon and Emily Mallory 8-0 in the doubles competition. Kasler and Pfiefler continued the Tiger's success in the doubles outplaying their opponents 8-5.
"We started the season with twice-a-day practices," said Kurteva. "That helped us to be physically prepared for today and days like today. We have four days in February that we play doubleheaders. I think we will do fine."
In the singles competition, freshman Maria Cardenas Conti, Pfeifler and Schippers ended the day with victories over the Bulldogs. Conti earned a 6-0, 6-1 win over Sarah Gail Nieburon. Pfeifler won her match 6-1, 6-0 and Schippers finished 6-0, 6-2.
This was the second of five days of consecutive home matches the Tigers will play this month.
Auburn will go up against Texas Tech at the Yarbrough Tennis Center on Thursday, Feb. 21. at 11 a.m. followed by a doubleheader against Tulane at noon and UAB at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23.
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