‘Doing it for Auburn’: Insights and highlights from the epic Elite Eight win over LSU by Auburn women’s tennis
Here’s how Khairutdinova stepped up on the biggest stage, Okutoyi forced another reversal, Ionescu clinched again, plus more.
Slowly, but so surely, the monster started to stir.
The orange and blue machine began to churn to life.
Mounting an incredible comeback — improbable before it started but unstoppable once it began — the Auburn women’s tennis team topped LSU 4-1 on Friday in the NCAA Tournament’s quarterfinals in Athens, advancing to the Final Four play in the national semifinals on Saturday.
No. 2-seeded Auburn advances to face No. 3-seeded Ohio State at 3 p.m. Saturday, after Friday’s win for the record books. This was already Auburn’s first run to the Elite Eight in program history, and now this season marks the program’s first-ever trip to the Final Four.
“Amazing win for us and the program,” head coach Jordan Szabo said on the ESPN+ broadcast after the win.
Auburn got there by playing the same powerful tennis it’s played all year — once it got going.
Auburn lost five first sets at the start of singles play, and it outlook was dire for Auburn. Auburn needed wins in three singles matches to earn the team win — and didn’t have a lead on a single court at the time, losing five first sets with the sixth match going to tiebreaker.
College tennis 101
In singles play, matches are played on all six courts and decided in a best two out of three sets format.
Each singles win award a point toward the team tally, and the team to win the best four out of seven possible points wins.
That seventh point is decided in doubles play, during with matches are played on three courts and the school that wins two out of the three wins the doubles point.
But Ekaterina Khairutdinova won her tiebreaker. She raised her arms in that ‘pump up’ motion, trying to get the Auburn fans in Athens on their feet, and trying to spread that energy out to the other courts.
Then things slowly turned. The machine whirred into gear. Angella Okutoyi trailed 3-4 in the second set, then — just as she did against Duke in the Sweet 16 — she muscled her way to a comeback, winning four of the next five games to take the set, then winning the third set 6-4. Ava Esposito won her second set in a tiebreaker. Ashton Bowers won her second set in a 7-5 battle. In fact, just as Auburn lost five first sets, Auburn came back to win five second sets.
“I knew if we could just get a couple second sets on the board, we’d be really tough down the stretch,” Szabo said. “We train really hard and we do all the right things all the time to give ourselves a chance deep into third sets.”
It was Eva Ionescu who clinched it with her win over LSU’s Kinaa Graham, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5.
Ionescu clinched the match against the same opponent in the SEC Tournament final back on April 19.
“The fight was amazing,” Szabo said. “We try to have that street fighter mentality when our backs are against the wall. You know, as a coach, sometimes you wish you don’t get to that moment. But the character and the perseverance was incredible.
“We’re fired up. We’re pumped up. We’re playing for the right reasons,” he added later, in the post-match press conference shared by Auburn. “We’re doing it for Auburn.”
The spark — from a certain perspective — came from the most unlikeliest of places:
Khairutdinova turns momentum
Heading into Friday’s match, Khairutdinova was the only player in Auburn’s lineup who went 0-2 against LSU in previous matches this season, in the regular-season matchup in Baton Rouge and in the SEC Tournament final.
She was pitted against the same player who had beaten her twice this year: LSU’s Kayla Cross, the No. 21-ranked player in the ITA national rankings.
Cross in Baton Rouge beat her 6-4, 0-6, 6-0, and in the SEC Tournament final Cross won in straight sets 6-2, 7-6 (5).
It was going the same way early Friday: Just as Auburn was losing first sets on the five other courts, Cross led Khairutdinova 6-5 as Khairutdinova served and actually had two break-point and set-point opportunities. But Khairutdinova fought them off with a big backhand down the line to tie it 6-6:
Khairutdinova threw her hands and called for noise from the bleachers — trying to energize the Auburn supporters there, and, in turn, trying to spread that positive energy to other courts.
Khairutdinova won the tiebreaker 7-4, on the winning point digging up a return with an out-stretched stab — and Cross whiffed on her return, sending it wide in an error.
Khairutdinova would ultimately take full advantage of the gift. In the second set, Cross led 4-2 before Khairutdinova stormed back to win four straight games to win it, holding to 15, breaking on a deciding point, holding to 15 again, then braking to love to close out a remarkable win for the senior.
Khairutdinova — a transfer senior from FIU in her first and only season with the Tigers — made her mark on program history by sparking the turnaround, and by making her own personal turnaround against Cross by winning the match when it mattered most.