TO THE FINAL FOUR: Auburn women’s tennis comes back to beat LSU in a stunning reversal, advances to the national semifinals
Auburn will face the winner of Ohio State and Pepperdine in the NCAA Tournament semifinals on Saturday.
The sensational Auburn Tigers have done it again. Unbelievably, and remarkably, Auburn women’s tennis came charging back Friday to advance to the Final Four.
Led by incredible comeback wins by Katya Khairutdinova, Angella Okutoyi and Eva Ionescu, Auburn advances to Saturday’s national semifinal against either Ohio State or Pepperdine at the NCAA Tournament’s final site in Athens, Ga.
Auburn beat LSU 4-1 Friday in a quarterfinal epic. The final team score won’t tell the full story. LSU came out hot in the doubles point, looking like a team that’s been there before, as it has — and Auburn, at times, looked like the team making its first-ever appearance in the Elite Eight, which it is. Auburn managed to fight off its heels to scrape the doubles point away from LSU, but singles play looked even more dire for Auburn.
LSU won the first set on five of the six singles courts. Okutoyi lost her first set 1-6. Ionescu lost her first set 4-6. Auburn lost on every other court until Khairutdinova went to a first-set tiebreaker — and survived it to win 7-6.
That was the start of the comeback, and from there, the mighty orange and blue machine began to churn to life.
Auburn, the NCAA Tournament’s No. 2 seed and the No. 1 team in the ITA’s national rankings, began to show the fight that got the Tigers to Athens. Khairutdinova closed her win in straight sets 7-6, 6-4. That clutch tiebreaker win proved huge.
And that was right about the time Okutoyi started to turn her match around. She trailed 0-2 in the second set and 2-3 later in the set, before roaring back to win three of the next four games then win the third set 6-4.
It was Ionescu who clinched it, the same way she did against LSU in the SEC Tournament final. Against the same opponent that she went to a third-set tiebreak battle with in that final, Ionescu came back from a 4-6 loss in the first set to drop a 6-0 bagel in the second set, then scratch out a 6-4 win in the third set.
Just as she did in Norman at the SEC Tournament final, Ionescu threw her arms in the air — and the Tigers rushed her and they all jumped for joy.
Auburn’s match Saturday is scheduled for a 3 p.m. Central start. Ohio State is the No. 3 seed and Pepperdine is the No. 11 seed.
I thought we were cooked.