Auburn's women's tennis team finished their first pair of matches of the spring season with wins.
The first match against Middle Tennessee State finished with a score of 4-1 with two matches unfinished because the Tigers clinched.
Junior Pleun Burgmans won her court one match 6-1, 6-4, despite leading 5-0 in the second set. After her match, Burgmans said her opponent started to play better while she regressed slightly in the second set.
"She started to make a lot more balls," Burgmans said. "After 5-0 every second or third ball was a mistake, so I just had to adapt a little bit as she was making more balls."
Emily Flickenger, a senior and second court singles, had one of the four matches that went to three sets against MTSU. Unfortunately, she was unable to finish her match because the team had already clinched the win, but she walked off the court with a score of 6-7, 6-4, 6-6.
Afterwards, Flickenger said she was happy to have not given up a loss.
"Honestly, I was just focusing on trying not to lose 6-1 in the third and crawling back," Flickenger said. "So I climbed my way out of that one."
The second match against Alabama A&M wasn't nearly as close. The Tigers came out with a win by score of 4-0.
After the matches, head coach Lauren Longbotham Meisner said she felt that the MTSU match was invaluable experience for her girls and expects the Blue Raiders to be ranked fairly soon.
"It's a good start off for us before the ITA kickoff," Meisner said. "We wanted to play a good team. They were good from top to bottom and made us work. It was a good test."
Meisner also said the three set matches against MTSU are an early test and something they need, even though three set matches aren't the ideal situation to be in.
"You've got to make sure that from the very beginning you're ready to fight," Meisner said. "We're not a team that we can get our matches easy. Every one we have to show up for. Obviously, you don't want to be in three sets, but if you have to, you'll take it."
Junior Paula DeMan, who won in three sets against MTSU with a score of 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, served as another big time performer to clinch the match for the Tigers.
Despite a close match with MTSU, the Tigers never lost a doubles match against either team.
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