AUBURN, Ala., Jan. 29, 2021 – University of South Florida women's tennis team suffered a loss to Auburn in its third match of the season on Friday, 4-0.
 
Freshman Grace Schumacher (Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia) and sophomore Margriet Timmermans (Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands) dropped their doubles set, 6-1, but sophomore Grace Eland (Manchester, England) and senior Evelyne Tiron (Bucharest, Romania) were able to make it even with their defeat over Carolyn Ansari and Yu Chen, 6-2. Soon after, Auburn's No. 11 ranked doubles pair of Selin Ovunc and Taylor Russo clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 victory against junior Amelie Boy (Trianon, Mauritius) and senior Alex Mjos (Austin, Texas).
 
The Tigers clinched the win after the next three singles courts ended in their favor and the duel was called with the remaining three matches going unfinished. In one of the unfinished matches, Boy took the first set, 7-5 againt No. 62 Ovunc and was holding a tight second set, 2-2 when the duel ended. In another, Schumacher, who was making her first appearance at the No. 2 spot, dropped the first set, 6-1 but battled back to keep the second set close, 5-5 at the close of the duel.
 
Quotable
Head coach Cristina Moros on Thursday's loss:
"Credit to Auburn today for winning the match. We knew this was going to be one of our toughest road trips of the year and it showed. Credit to Aussie [Grace Schumacher] and Amelie for hanging in against some extremely tough competition at the top of our lineup. If we have the team that I truly believe we have, they will grow tougher with these experiences and you will see some great things from the Bulls moving forward."
 
Match Results:
Singles competition:
1. #62 Selin Ovunc (AU) vs. Amelie Boy (USF), 5-7, 2-2 unfinished
2. Carolyn Ansari (AU) vs. Grace Schumacher (USF), 6-1, 5-5 unfinished
3. Georgie Axon (AU) def. Evelyne Tiron (USF), 6-1, 6-4
4. #99 Taylor Russo (AU) def. Alex Mjos (USF), 6-1, 6-1
5. Adeline Flach (AU) def. Lucia Garrigues (USF), 6-1, 6-3
6. Shir Azran (AU) vs. Margriet Timmermans (USF), 6-2, 5-3 unfinished
Order of Finish: (4, 5, 3)
 
Doubles competition:
1. #11 Ovunc/Russo (AU) def. Boy/Mjos (USF), 6-4
2. Axon/Flach (AU) def. Schumacher/Timmermans (USF), 6-1
3. Eland/Tiron (USF) def. Ansari/Chen (AU), 6-2
Order of Finish: (2,3,1)
 
Up Next:
South Florida travels to Jacksonville to play North Florida on Feb. 6 at 3 p.m. ET followed by a match against Stetson on Feb. 7 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
 
About Women's Tennis
Be sure to follow USF women's tennis on social media (Twitter / Facebook / Instagram) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information. Head coach Cristina Moros will be in her sixth year at the helm, as she led the program to an American Athletic Conference Championship in 2017.