01/16 at 11:23 PM

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Fourth-ranked Auburn (1-2, 0-2 SEC) was narrowly defeated by top-ranked Florida (2-0, 1-0 SEC), 196.500-196.250, on Friday night in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

The Tigers had five season or career-best marks in the loss.

“They are an awesome team, but by having a bad event that opened the door that we couldn’t keep open,” head coach Jeff Thompson said. “We went 49.025 on beam the last rotation which is awesome, but couldn’t hold off Florida’s incredible floor score of 49.450. Someone once told me, once is luck, twice is coincidence but three times in a row means you own it. I hope we will continue to get the respect that we deserve as one of the top teams in the country.”

Senior Lindsey Puckett captured her first balance beam title of the season (9.9), was the runner-up on vault (9.875) and placed third in the all-around (39.400). Sophomore Rachel Inniss and senior A.J. Mills completed the Auburn sweep on beam, posting scores of 9.875 and 9.850, respectively.

Freshman Kendall Swartz led the way for the Tigers in the opening rotation on uneven bars, scoring a career-high 9.85. A trio of 9.8s were scored by freshman Allyson Sandusky and Puckett and Mills. Krissy Voss started the rotation off by recording a 9.725 and was followed by Carmen Nelms’ 9.725. Auburn’s bars score of 48.975 marked a season high. Leah Vining was the Tigers’ exhibitionist.

Florida began the meet on vault, scoring a 49.225.

From bars to vault, the Tigers matched their season-high mark of 49.050. Puckett’s 9.875 was the high score for Auburn, followed by 9.8s from the freshmen duo of Kylie Shields and Sandusky, along with Mills.

The Gators’ registered a 48.975 in their second rotation on bars.

High scores were everywhere in the third rotation with Auburn on floor exercise. Two individuals, sophomore Katie Hurley and senior Claire Seiffert recorded career-high scores of 9.825 to pace the Tigers to a season-high floor score of 49.200. Mills had a 9.875, followed by Inniss with a 9.850. Voss exhibitioned for the Tigers on floor.

While the Tigers were tumbling on floor, Florida was on the balance beam and scored a 48.325.

Auburn concluded the meet on beam and was led by Puckett as the anchor. Her 9.9 gave the senior her first beam title of the season. Inniss scored a 9.875 and Mills provided a 9.85 to give the Tigers a 49.025 on beam. Lauren Brzostowski opened beam with a 9.725. Shields was in exhibition for Auburn on beam.

Florida concluded on floor with a 49.450.

The Tigers will return to Auburn and Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum on Jan. 23 to face No. 24 Iowa State at 7 p.m.

Soccer’s Whitworth drafted by WPS
Senior goalkeeper Allison Whitworth became the first Auburn soccer player ever to be drafted into a professional league when FC Gold Pride selected her in the eighth round (54th overall) of Friday’s Women’s Professional Soccer Draft in St. Louis.

“I’m so excited about this opportunity to continue my career in such an awesome arena as WPS,” Whitworth said from the site of the draft. “I need to thank first and foremost my family as well as all of my coaches, teammates and the rest of the Auburn staff who have shaped who I am and given me this opportunity. I’m very excited to head to the Bay Area to represent this family.”

“We are so excited for Allison to be selected in the first WPS Draft,” Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. “Her selection is a testament to all her hard work and a great way to end her collegiate career.  We look forward to watching her represent Auburn at the professional level.”

Whitworth, from Birmingham, finished her senior season with a school-record 132 saves, giving her an Auburn-best 356 stops in her career. She also posted eight shutouts for the second straight season to give her 22 career shutouts and posted a 1.02 GAA as a senior to earn First Team All-SEC accolades after being tabbed a Second Team All-SEC selection as a junior.

“Allison is a keeper we have been keeping our eye on for quite some time,” FC Gold Pride Head Coach Albertin Montoya said. “She has a lot of potential and we were very excited to have her still available to us in the (eighth) round.”

The FC Gold Pride is based out of California’s Bay Area and will play its home games at Buck Shaw Stadium at Santa Clara University. Montoya, who has been coaching and training professional and youth players and teams in the Bay Area and was a volunteer assistant coach at Stanford this past season, is the head coach. He will bring Jay Cooney, the goalkeeping coach at Stanford, along with him to coach FC Gold Pride.

FC Gold Pride chose former U.S Women’s National Team member and World Cup star Brandi Chastain in the seventh round (45th overall), nine picks before selecting Whitworth. Other notable selections by FC Gold Pride were Christina DiMartino from UCLA with the third overall pick and Ameera Abdullah from Florida in the fifth round (31st overall).

WPS is the highest level women’s professional soccer league in North America.  Formed in September 2007 as the result of the efforts of the Women’s Soccer Initiative, Inc., WPS, which will begin play in April,  consists of seven teams across the country.

The markets for the 2009 season are San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.  WPS expects to expand to Atlanta and Philadelphia in 2010 and continues to explore additional potential franchises for 2010 and beyond.

Women’s tennis opens spring with win
The No. 27 Auburn women’s tennis team kicked off the spring season on Friday against UAB in the first day of action at the Auburn Winter Invitational at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.

The women competed against UAB in the afternoon flights starting with doubles and wrapped up with singles competition.

Leading off doubles competition in the Orange Flight were juniors Fani Chifchieva and Melissa Koning defeating Jenny Cape and Evelien Strijker, 8-1.

In the Blue Flight of doubles, the senior duo of Whitney Chappell and Alex Haney topped Brittany DeFelice and Giorgia Romeo, 8-4.

The final doubles match for the day, in the Tiger Flight, was taken by Jil Hasternath and Auburn newcomer, Myrthe Molenveld. The pair won the match, 8-3, over Ceylan Engin and Linda Hricistova. Hricistova, a freshman of Georgia State, paired up with Engin in doubles competition as a fill-in for the Blazers.

“We did a good job in doubles,” head women’s tennis coach Tim Gray said. “Everybody was a little nervous at the onset, but they worked through it and we took care of business. Everybody had great energy.”

In singles competition, it was sixth-ranked All-American Chifchieva opening with a win. Facing Jenny Cape in the Orange Flight, Chifchieva was victorious, 6-1, 6-2.

No. 86 Haney won her match against Giorgia Romeo, 6-1, 6-4, in another Orange Flight match. Koning, ranked 41st nationally, defeated Brittany DeFelice, 6-0, 6-1, in the Blue Flight.

In the other Blue Flight match, Molenveld faced Jenny Cape and earned the victory, 6-0, 6-1.

The final singles matches of the night took place in the Tiger Flight with Whitney Chappell defeating Ceylan Engin, 6-2, 6-0, and Jil Hasternath beat Linda Hricistova, 7-5, 6-3 in the final match of the night. Hricistova competed for Georgia State in singles competition.

“We did a great job,” Gray stated. “In the first matches of the year, everyone is going to be a little nervous, but we worked through it and did a nice job in every flight.”

The Auburn Winter Invitational will continue today with UAB facing Georgia State at 10 a.m. and Auburn taking on Southern Mississippi at 2:30 p.m. at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.