No. 2 Auburn makes history, punches ticket to program's first Elite 8

No. 2 Auburn women’s tennis has etched its name into the history books — again.

After learning they were set to host an NCAA Super Regional for the first time ever, the Tigers defeated No. 15 Duke 4-2 on Friday night at the Yarbrough Tennis Center, punching their ticket to the program’s first Elite Eight.

The victory comes just a week after Auburn emerged from its own NCAA Regional, where it took down Bryant and Miami on its home court.

Now, second-year head coach Jordan Szabo and company are continuing their trek into unfamiliar yet impressive territory, with a national championship berth on the horizon.

“It was a good performance and we fought really hard,” Szabo said after the victory. “I don’t know if we necessarily played our best tennis, but we found a way to win. Duke is a really good team, and they’re a little under-ranked. Things were tricky because we were meant to play outside, then had about an hour delay and had to come inside against a team that plays inside a lot.

Ashton Bowers and Ekaterina Khairutdinova set the tone early in doubles for Auburn, recording a quick 6-1 victory at the No. 3 position before Angella Okutoyi and Merna Refaat earned an easy 6-1 win at the No. 2 position to clinch the opening doubles point for the Tigers.

On the No. 2 singles court, Khairutdinova improved her singles record this spring to 18-6 with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Duke’s Aspen Shuman. The first started 2-1 in Khairutdinova’s favor, but the Auburn senior won back-to-back games on deciding points to extend her first-set advantage to 4-1.

Khairutdinova ultimately finished the first set comfortably before dominating Shuman in the second, giving the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

However, the Blue Devils managed to fire back, as Irina Balus at the No. 1 position and Claire An at the No. 4 position both emerged victorious to even the match at 2-2.

Auburn’s Ava Esposito and Duke’s Eleana Yu were locked at 2-2 early in the first set on the No. 6 singles court, but Esposito eventually discovered a rhythm, winning the next four games to claim a 6-2 opening-set win.

The second stanza was a different story, as Yu jumped out to a 4-2 lead after taking back-to-back games on deciding points. However, Esposito came back to tie the set at four before eventually forcing a tiebreaker.

With the tiebreaker knotted at three, the Auburn junior claimed four straight points to win the match, making the Tigers just one win away from an NCAA quarterfinal appearance.

At the No. 3 position, Okutoyi found herself with a 4-2 edge in the first set, but Duke’s Liv Hovde responded with three straight games to take a 5-4 lead before winning the set 7-5.

Hovde’s momentum carried over into the second set, leading 4-1 after five games, but Okutoyi then held serve several times and evened the set at four. With the set tied 5-5, Okutoyi earned another break before holding serve in the final game to win the set 7-5 and force a third.

And from there, the Auburn senior took control and dominated, shutting out Hovde to cap a 5-7, 7-5, 6-0 comeback win to send the Tigers to the program’s inaugural Elite Eight.

“When I was down 4-1 in the second, I was making so many mistakes, but my coaches were telling me to just try and make the points longer and tougher,” Okutoyi said. “I told myself that it was do or die because the points were going very quickly, and I needed to change the momentum and the rhythm. Once I did that, you could tell she started to break down. So I feel like just changing my mindset to play longer points and putting all the balls on the court really changed the match.”

With the win, Auburn will face No. 10 LSU at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia, on Friday, May 15. The time for the quarterfinal match is to be determined.