11/05 at 01:42 AM

ORANGE BEACH — Katy Frierson picked up a pair of assists to help Auburn earn up its first win in a SEC Tournament match since the 2005 postseason as Auburn downed Ole Miss, 2-1, on Wednesday at the Orange Beach Sportsplex.

The win advanced Auburn into the semifinals, where it will play SEC West Champion LSU at 5 p.m. on Friday.

“We did a great job of finding a way to win. Ole Miss is a great team and they played a great game, our girls just did a fantastic job of getting better from last weekend,” Auburn head coach Karen Hoppa said. “We scored goals when we needed to and we did a great job of ending the game; the last 10-15 minutes, not giving them a good look and getting out of here with a 2-1 win.”

Frierson, who was named to the All-SEC First Team on Tuesday, assisted on both Mary Coffed’s and Julie King’s goals as Auburn (10-7-3) defeated Ole Miss (7-3-3) for the first time since the 2004 season.

“I try to find the open pass and do whatever it takes to keep the ball for the team. That’s the role of the midfield, to keep the ball and keep possession,” Frierson said.

Auburn wasted little time getting on the board, scoring 2:38 into the match on the game’s first shot. Frierson picked up her team-leading ninth assist, finding Coffed for her fourth goal of the season and the 1-0 lead. Frierson held possession just outside the 18 and crossed it to Coffed at the opposite side of the 18. Coffed then sent it back in across the grain, sliding it just inside far post for Auburn’s quickest score of the season.

“One of our keys to the game was to come out early and come out strong with a lot of physicality. It was really important to get on the board first,” Coffed said. “We like to get the ball up the field as fast as we can. Katy gave me a perfect cross and I was able to place it far post, so lots of the credit goes to Katy.”

Caitlin King was inches away from putting Auburn up two when she hit the same post the Coffed snuck it inside of in the game’s 13th minute after splitting a pair of Ole Miss defenders at the top of the box. King finished with a team-high five shots

The game stayed 1-0 Auburn until Julie King headed in a Frierson corner in the 57th minute to put Auburn up a pair. The goal was King’s third of the season while Frierson collected her second multi-assist game of the season. Ashley Marks earned the corner for Auburn when she took a Rebecca Howell feed into the box and put a shot on frame that forced Ole Miss goalkeeper Alley Ronaldi into a finger-tip save.

Ole Miss got to within a goal, 2-1, with just under 29 minutes remaining when Dylan Jordan snuck a slow roller through the defense and past Auburn goalkeeper Amy Howard for her fifth goal of the season. Hannah Weatherly found Jordan, earning her third assist on the season.

Jordan’s goal was the first Auburn has allowed since the 11th minute of its match at Tennessee, snapping a 320-minute stretch of shutout soccer for Howard and the Auburn backline.

Ole Miss took 15 shots to Auburn’s 12 but Howard, the SEC All-Freshman Team goalkeeper, made five saves to earn the win for Auburn.

Auburn faces No. 3 seed LSU, a 4-2 winner over Vanderbilt, in the semifinals. Auburn is 0-1-1 all-time against LSU at the SEC Tournament. The two teams met in the first round of the 2007 tournament, playing to a 2-2 tie, though LSU advanced on penalty kicks. LSU defeated Auburn, 2-0, in the regular-season meeting between the two on Oct. 4 in Auburn.

Frierson’s two assists give her 17 for her career, which ties her with Jac Schwarz (2002-06) and Jill Palmer (1995-98) for seventh in Auburn history while her 11 assists this season are tied with Maggie Cauley (1994) for fourth in a single season at Auburn. She has now collected 45 career points in 42 career matches.

Puetz, Stamchev head to ITA Indoor
Auburn junior Tim Puetz and sophomore Alex Stamchev will take part in the 2009 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in New Haven, Conn., on the campus of Yale University today-Sunday.

“This is a great opportunity for both of them to continue their successful fall season,” head coach Eric Shore said.

“It is one of the premier events of the fall and they will be facing some very tough competition.”

Puetz, a Vsiugen, Germany, native, qualified for the 32-player singles field after winning the Wilson/ITA South Regional singles title on Oct. 25 in New Orleans. Puetz came into the fall season as the 54th-ranked player in the country and enters the national meet with an 11-2 record.

Puetz picked up a major win last weekend at the South Carolina Invitational, defeating No. 12 Austen Childs in three sets (6-2, 4-6, 6-4).

“I’m very excited to be a part of the tournament,” Puetz said. “I have no idea what to expect except that I will be facing some of the top competitors in the country.”

Puetz will join forces with doubles partner Stamchev for the 16-team doubles field. The pair qualified for the tournament after capturing the South Regional title with an 8-3 win over Alabama’s Houssam Yassine and Trey Walston on Oct. 25. Puetz and Stamchev, ranked 21st in the country, hold a 10-1 record so far this season and have faced a handful of ranked opponents. Most recently, the pair defeated the No. 9 team of Diego Cubas and Ivan Machado of South Carolina (8-4) this past weekend.

Puetz and Stamchev also picked up a win over No. 10 Austen Childs and Simon Childs of Louisville on Friday (9-8).

“This is a very prestigious tournament and it will help build our confidence,” Stamchev said. “All of the tournaments and conditioning up to this point has really prepared us and will pay off if we compete at our best level.”

The duo will face Cubas and Machado of South Carolina at 10 a.m. today to open competition. Singles play starts at 4:30 p.m.  for Puetz, who takes on No. 5 Guillermo Gomez of Georgia Tech.

Chifchieva represents AU women at ITA
Auburn women’s tennis player Fani Chifchieva will travel to the ITA National Indoor Championships,  which begin today in New Haven, Conn.

Chifchieva received an automatic bid in the tournament after defeating Kristi Boxx of Ole Miss in the ITA Southern Regional final on Oct. 26, becoming the first Auburn player in program history to capture the ITA Southern Regional title.

Chifchieva’s path to the final ran through UAB’s Evelien Strijker in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round. In her second match of the tournament, she defeated Karoline Grymel of Troy 6-0, 6-2 to advance to the round of 16, and downed Ole Miss’ Abigail Guthrie in the round of eight.

The senior All-American dropped the first set in a 6-7 (5) tie-break, but rallied in the final two sets 6-4, 6-4 to take the match and advance to the tournament semi-finals. In the semi-final match against Karen Njissen of Ole Miss, Chifchieva took home a straight-set victory 6-2, 6-3.

Play begins today at 9 a.m. with first-round doubles and singles.

Consolation brackets start on Friday, and are re-drawn and re-seeded following the completion of play on Round 1.