EVANSTON, Ill. – No. 4 Stanford suffered its first loss of the season in the opening round of the ITA Indoor Championship on Friday, losing to No. 10 Auburn 4-1.
Doubles came down to a tiebreaker at No. 2, where Chidimma Okpara and Valencia Xu reeled off five consecutive games after falling in a 5-1 hole. But it was Auburn’s Angella Okutoyi and Merna Refaat who forced the breaker and won it 7-5 to claim the point for the Tigers.
The teams’ split first sets in singles with Connie Ma, Xu and Caroline Driscoll winning at Nos. 2, 4 and 6. Xu would be the only one to finish per match, dispatching Refaat 6-3, 6-1. Ma and Driscoll’s matches were abandoned, as Auburn took wins at No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5.
The Cardinal will play two more matches in Evanston, beginning with the loser of No. 1 Georgia and Northwestern tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. PT.
Auburn 4, Stanford 1
DOUBLES
1) #49 Valerie Glozman/Connie Ma (STAN) d. #12 DJ Bennett/Ava Hrastar (AUB) 6-2
2) #51 Angella Okutoyi/Merna Refaat (AUB) d. Chidimma Okpara/Valencia Xu (STAN) 7-6 (5)
3) Ava Esposito Cogan/Maria Garcia (AUB) d. Caroline Driscoll/Katherine Hui (STAN) 6-4
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
SINGLES
1) #2 DJ Bennett (AUB) d. #8 Valerie Glozman (STAN) 7-5, 6-1
2) #18 Connie Ma (STAN) led #116 Ava Hrasta (AUB) 6-4, 4-3 unf.
3) #58 Angella Okutoyi (AUB) d. Katherine Hui (STAN) 7-6 (1), 6-4
4) Valencia Xu (STAN) d. #22 Merna Refaat (AUB) 6-3, 6-1
5) Ava Esposito Cogan (AUB) d. Chidimma Okpara (STAN) 6-3, 7-6 (5)
6) Caroline Driscoll (STAN) led Alice Battesti (AUB) 6-4, 2-4 unf.
Order of finish: 4, 1, 5, 3