‘Bring it to Auburn’: Insights and highlights as the Tigers enter the national championship match
Here’s a look at what’s clicking for Auburn women’s tennis going into the title game, and the storylines surrounding the squad entering the program’s biggest match ever.
They chanted her name, as she did the honors.
Auburn sophomore Merna Refaat advanced Auburn’s name on the big bracket next to the tennis courts in Athens on Saturday night, as her teammates celebrated behind her.
“MER-NA! MER-NA! MER-NA!”
She stuck ‘AUBURN’ right in the middle of the bracket, all the way to the end of the line — into the national championship final.
It was a storybook moment, coming as the sun started to set over semifinal day at the NCAA Championships in Athens. Refaat a round earlier had been scratched from the lineup and benched for the quarterfinal match, in a strategic decision for the greater good of the team as Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo tried to put more favorable matchups on more courts against LSU.
Instead of sulking, Refaat roared back onto the courts Saturday in the semis against Ohio State, a consummate teammate — starting again and winning 6-1 alongside Angella Okutoyi in doubles before winning 6-4, 6-2 in the clinching match in singles on Court 4.
After kneeling down to place the Auburn sticker on the bracket, she spun around with a smile, and threw her arms in the air to celebrate with her teammates.
“It felt amazing clinching the win for the team,” Refaat said later, in the post-match press conference. “From the beginning of the match it was just, ‘Focus on the goal. Focus on getting the job done.’ And I think that’s what helped me the entire match — and also trusting teammates.”
Auburn downed Ohio State 4-1. The No. 2-seeded team in the NCAA Tournament, and the No. 1-ranked team in the ITA national rankings, Auburn closes its dream season at 6 p.m. Sunday against Texas A&M in the championship match.
“Merna coming in today and clinching the match after not playing yesterday — I think people doubt Merna sometimes and I don’t know why. … Merna’s a superstar. She’s going to be the leader of our team after this year. I knew she was going to come out and play a great match today,” Szabo said. “She’s a champion, and that’s why she’s in the position that she’s in.
“But she understands ‘team,’ too. No one was more happy yesterday than Merna Refaat that we won, even though she didn’t get to play singles. So she’s a champion, she’s a leader, she’s what college tennis is all about.”
Refaat won 67% of her second serve return points, surgically taking advantage of her opponent’s service faults by winning 14 of 21 opportunities against her opponent’s second serve. She fended off a whopping 10 break points from her opponent — who finished just 1-for-11 on break-point chances.
And the effort’s gotten Auburn to the title game.
“I think Jordan really put that in our heads that, no matter what we’re feeling, we’re playing for something bigger — for something bigger than what we feel in the moment,” Refaat said. “And just to find ways to bring it to Auburn.”
Here are more insights and highlights from Saturday’s big semifinal win over Ohio State:
Esposito’s serve comes up big
Auburn junior Ava Esposito picked up Auburn’s first win on the singles courts, winning 7-5, 6-0 on Court 6.
Esposito, the 5-foot-11 Southpaw from Connecticut, saw her big serve deliver success all through the match.
Esposito finished with a team-high four aces, which also tied the most from any Ohio State player, while Esposito also won a match-best 70% of her serve points while winning a whopping 82% of her first serve points — also the highest percentage of any player from either team in singles play.
College tennis 101
When a serve doesn’t land in bounds, it’s a fault. The player gets one more chance to get a serve in, but if they don’t, it’s a double fault and they forfeit the point.
A second serve is the serve the player delivers after the fault — usually more conservative and more returnable, as the server takes a little juice off the ball and gives it a less ambitious swing since they’ll have no additional chances after that to get it in. A first serve is usually the player’s best serve, hard and ambitious, since the player has some margin for error before getting a fault.
Esposito has split time on Court 6 this season with freshman Eva Ionescu. Esposito got the start from Szabo on Saturday — and she rewarded him in a big way with the straight-sets victory. She earned All-American status in the fall after making a run to the round of 16 in the NCAA’s singles tournament.
But it wasn’t just her serve that came up clutch for Esposito on Saturday. She closed her first set with her forehand, and by pressing her advantage as a lefty. In the set-winning rally, she fired forehands cross-court into the corner — and, as a left-handed player, her cross-court shots force back-hand returns from right-handed players. She sent Ohio State’s Alessia Cau into multiple times during the set-winning rally before putting it away with yet another cross-court winner.
Then — wouldn’t you know it? — she closed the second set using her backhand, making it an all-around performance for her on the day: