SWEET AND ELITE: Insights and highlights from Auburn's Sweet Sixteen win over Duke
They chanted "AN-GIE! AN-GIE!" after Okutoyi clinched the match. Here's the inside look at how she did it, plus more from the Tigers' history-making win, which punched their ticket to the Elite Eight.
Duke’s last gasp fell wide, and the Tigers jumped for joy.
Angella Okutoyi flung down her racket. Her teammates swarmed her in celebration.
“AN-GIE! AN-GIE! AN-GIE!” those teammates chanted, jumping in a circle arm-in-arm. It was their senior warrior who clinched it, so they chanted her name. It was history made for Auburn women’s tennis, so they danced.
Auburn beat Duke 4-2 on Friday night in the Sweet Sixteen to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals for the first time in program history. It was every bit the battle Auburn expected from nationally seeded Duke — the same program that had eliminated the Tigers from last year’s NCAA Tournament. Auburn won the doubles point and started strong in the opening sets in singles, but as singles wore on, Duke started to turn the worm.
Duke staved off some match points on Court 6, mounted a comeback on Court 5, and put away wins in straight sets on Court 1 and Court 4. Okutoyi’s opponent won their first set 7-5, then held a big 4-1 lead in the second set.
That’s where Okutoyi forced another, final reversal. Okutoyi flipped her match on its head winning 12 of the next 13 games to come back to win the second set and win the third — unbelievably, and undeniably, a force of nature pushing Auburn to the Elite Eight.
“She’s a superstar player, a champion player,” Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo said of Okutoyi.
“Just an unreal performance for her, her last match over here,” he said. “To do that, win 6-0 in the third and send us to the Elite Eight — pretty special.”
Here’s what Okutoyi had to say, and how she did it — plus more insights and highlights from a history-making win for Auburn women’s tennis:
How Okutoyi turned it around
When Duke tied it up 2-2 on the scoreboard, the match devolved into a simple best-of-three with three matches still going:
Okutoyi at a point went down 1-4 in the second set, after losing the first set;
Ava Esposito saw Duke stave off four match points and force a tiebreaker;
Ashton Bowers was locked in a tight battle, ultimately going to a third set.
At certain points, Duke seemed to have the upper hand on all three courts. That’s why Okutoyi’s turnabout was so pivotal.
She defeated Duke’s Liv Hovde 5-7, 7-5, 6-0.
“I feel like when I was down 4-1 in the second set, I think before that I was making so many mistakes. Even my coach was telling me to just try and make the points longer and tough,” Okutoyi explained, standing victoriously on the indoor courts at the Yarbrough Tennis Center. “So after the 4-1, I told myself that I actually need to fight right now — like, do or die.
“I felt like points were going really quickly and I just needed to change the momentum and rhythm. Once I did that, you could all tell, she broke down, even from the third set when we started — so I feel like just changing my mindset to playing longer points, and just putting all the balls on the court, and making her work for the point, really changed the match.”
Keeping the ball in play, and playing to outlast Hovde, Okutoyi was able to force Hovde into misfires like this one on game point that put Okutoyi up 4-0 in the third set: