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April 5, 2009

Box Score

AUBURN, Ala. - Led by a stellar effort from sophomore Jennifer Meredith, the 13th-ranked University of Tennessee women's tennis team (13-4, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) tallied its second 5-2 victory of the weekend, spoiling No. 29 Auburn's (11-8, 3-4) Senior Day on Sunday afternoon at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn, Ala. The Marietta, Ga., native clinched both the doubles point and team victory for the Lady Volunteers, while picking up her 12th-consecutive singles triumph as well.

With her straight-set, 6-2, 6-3, win over Myrthe Molenveld on the fourth court in singles play, Meredith moved her overall record this season to a team-best 23-9, including an impressive 14-3 mark in dual-match play. She has been perfect in SEC action as well, winning all eight of the contests in which she has competed. The match-clinching victory over Molenveld marked Meredith's third such win of the year, as she also finished off UT's triumphs over Mississippi State and South Carolina on March 6 and 13, respectively.

The Big Orange opened the contest by winning the doubles point for the third consecutive match and 13th time this spring. With the team win on Sunday, the Lady Vols are now 12-1 in contests in which they claimed the doubles point. The duo of junior Zsófia Zubor and sophomore Rosalía Alda got UT off to a good start, picking up an 8-3 triumph over the Tiger tandem of Molenveld and Daniela Vukadinovic on the second court.

Just moments later at the third position in the lineup, Meredith joined forces with fellow sophomore Maria Sorbello to down the Auburn pairing of Fani Chifchieva and Jil Hastenrath, 8-6, and give UT the first point on the scoreboard. The final doubles match went to the Tigers on center court where the No. 34-ranked duo of Alex Haney and Whitney Chappell held off a late comeback attempt from the 39th-rated Tennessee team of junior Caitlin Whoriskey and freshman Natalie Pluskota to win in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (4). The Lady Vols dropped the first four points of the contest and fell behind 6-1 before rallying to tie it up at 7-7. The two squads then traded the next two points before Chifchieva and Hastenrath won the tiebreaker by a score of 7-4.

With the outcome of the contest already decided, sophomore Maria Sorbello added a fifth point for Tennessee, downing Hastenrath, 6-3, 6-2, at the No. 6 position. The Tigers finally cracked the scoreboard when the nation's No. 6-ranked player, Chifchieva, took out the 32nd-rated Whoriskey in a third-set super tiebreaker, 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (7), on center court. Haney then brought the match to a close with a three-set win of her own in her final home match as a Tiger, defeating Pluskota, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, on the second court.

The Big Orange will finish the regular season with a three-match homestand, starting with a 4 p.m. contest against No. 20 Kentucky on Friday, April 10. Following that contest, the Lady Vols will host 19th-ranked Vanderbilt at 1 p.m. two days later, before welcoming No. 2 Georgia to Rocky Top at Noon on Saturday, April 12 for Senior Day. All three matches will take place at the Goodfriend Tennis Center in Knoxville and live scoring will be available at www.UTLadyVols.com.

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (3,5,4*,6,1,2)