Florida Women’s Tennis Drops First Conference Match To Auburn

The Florida Gators women’s tennis team couldn’t grab the win at No. 4 Auburn, falling  5-2, on Sunday.

Doubles

Freshmen Nikola Daubnerova–Noèmie Oliveras couldn’t muster an attack to get past sophomore Ava Esposito-freshman Maria Garcia, falling 6-2 on court three.

Not long after, Auburn’s pair of junior Angella Okutoyi-freshman Merna Refaat secured the doubles point for the Tigers (12-1) against junior Rachel Gailis-freshman Talia Neilson-Gatenby 6-3.

Seniors Alicia Dudeney–Bente Spee went unfinished with the doubles pair of junior DJ Bennett-grad student Ava Hrastar on court one, trailing 5-4.

Singles

Trailing 1-0, Florida (3-3) pushed back but struggled to find momentum in singles, quickly falling behind by two.

Neilson-Gatenby was no match for Okutoyi on court three, as the freshman was the only Gator not to win a set in singles by falling 6-4, 6-1.

Gailis’ remarkable court one performance against Bennett, the No. 2 singles player in the nation, brought Florida back within one. The two traded sets, each 6-2, but Gailis broke in the 10th game to pull out a 6-4 third-set victory and make the score 2-1.

Olivèras won her first set against Auburn freshman Alice Battesti on court six, but was stunted from there. Battesti came back to take sets two and three in the 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory that extended Auburn’s lead to 3-1.

Dudeney kept Florida’s hopes alive with her impressive comeback against Hrastar on court two. Hrastar snagged the first set, but Dudeney dug deep to pull out a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win and momentarily keep the Gators in contention, 3-2.

On court five, Spee was outplayed by Esposito, as Auburn clinched the match 4-2. After falling in the first set, the senior made it clear that she wouldn’t go down without a fight, taking set two 6-4, before dropping the third set, 7-5.

Daubnerova continued play with No. 17 Refaat despite Auburn sealing its victory. After falling 6-1 in the first set, the Gator took set two to a tiebreaking and won 7-6(9). However, the Egyptian stole a game from Daubnerova late in set three, giving her enough to edge out a 7-5 victory and finalize Auburn’s 5-2 win.

Up Next

Florida will look to bounce back at South Carolina on Friday when it faces the Gamecocks at 3 p.m.

Auburn will also play at 3 p.m. Friday when it pays a visit to No. 1 Georgia (their only loss so far this season).