Auburn women’s tennis advances to the Elite 8 after win over Duke

The No. 1 Auburn defeats No. 15 Duke in the Super Regional to move on through the NCAA Tournament to the Elite 8 in Athens, Georgia.

Auburn took down Duke 4-2 in the NCAA Super Regional on Friday, May in Auburn, Alabama at the Yarbrough Tennis Center. The winning match came as Auburn senior Angella Okutoyi defeated Duke’s Live Hovde in three sets, without dropping a game in the final set, which propelled the Tigers to the Elite 8.

The day started off strong for Auburn as the No. 3 doubles, Ashton Bowers and Ekaterina Khairutdinova, won their 29th match of the year in a clean 6-1 victory. The No. 2 court doubles of Okutoyi and Merna Refaat also picked up a 6-1 victory in their match.

Khairutdinova won her singles at the No. 2 court in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, improving her spring season record to 18-6. Auburn’s Ava Esposito was almost pushed to a third set by Duke’s Eleana Yu, who sent the second set to a tie-break, where Esposito prevailed to take the match 6-2, 7-6.

Okutoyi’s match that won it for the Tigers, she had to push for a third set after dropping the first set 5-7. She went on to win the second 7-5 with the final set being a clean sweep of games, finishing her match 5-7, 7-5, 6-0. Overall, the Tigers won all three doubles and four of their six singles.

No matter the outcome of this season for the Tigers, history has been made throughout, and they will be a team to be remembered. The win over the Blue Devils, it marked the first time ever that the program has made it to the national quarterfinals. Already this season, the Tigers claimed their first SEC regular-season title and SEC Championship.

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This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn women’s tennis defeats Duke to move on to the Elite 8