Victory and defeat found the Auburn women's tennis team during ITA kick-off at Coral Gables, Florida this weekend. The Tigers successfully completed a 4-0 sweep over Michigan State before falling 4-2 in a heartbreaker against No. 12 Miami.
"This was one of those matches where the conditions are so bad you have to throw out the idea of playing pretty and just playing gritty, tough tennis," said Auburn head coach Lauren Spencer.
Auburn won the doubles point after Alizee Michaed and Reka Muller put on a dominant performance against Michigan State's Emily Metcalf and Allie Baer 6-2. Andie Dikosavljevic and Alannah Griffin dominated together for the first time this year with a 6-4 win over Emily Meyers and Lexi Baylis. Pleun Burgmans and Paula de Man had a 5-3 lead but did not complete after Auburn clinched the doubles point.
"Michigan State gave us nothing, they fought for every point and we had to just really dig in and want to win the point more," Spencer said. "We preached ball tolerance and staying positive in a difficult situation and was really proud of how they dug in and battled."
Carrying their momentum into Sunday morning, Auburn hoped to notch another huge win when facing the Hurricanes. Michaud and Muller stayed undefeated with a 6-0 win, while Dikosavljevic and Griffin mounted a come from behind victory to clinch the doubles point 7-6.
"Miami has always been one of the best doubles teams in the country," Spencer said. "For us to be able to get the doubles point was huge for us."
The Tigers progressed into singles action, but fell behind early after quick victories from Miami with Griffin (6-3, 6-1), de Man (6-1, 6-1) and Muller (6-2, 6-2) falling on courts four, five and six. Michaud made the score 3-2 after beating Clementina Riobueno 6-3, 7-6 for her second singles victory of the weekend. Dikosavljevic dropped the next two sets as Miami clinched the match 4-2.
"Very tough match against a great top 15 team," Spencer said. "We will regroup and keep grinding away to establish the winning culture that we expect at Auburn to be able to rebound against Samford next weekend."
The Tigers will return to action at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn to host Samford starting at noon.
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