Special to the News

03/07 at 11:44 PM

The Auburn men’s swimming team hosted the James E. Martin Invitational last-chance meet Sunday at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center.

The invite is a last-chance meet for swimmers who wish to improve times for the upcoming NCAA Championships.

Freshman Kyle Owens recorded his first-career NCAA “A” qualifying time, touching the wall in 46.46 in the 100y back. Picking up season-best times in the 200y back was sophomore Max Murphy and junior Jared White. Murphy picked up a NCAA “B” cut time of 1:42.95, while White swam his first B time in the event with a 1:44.28 mark.

Junior Andrew Mitchell put together two B times during the meet. His first came in the 200y IM where he finished in a season-best time of 1:45.36. Mitchell’s second was in the 100m back, seeing him swim in a B time of 57.18. Murphy also swam in the 100m back, clocking a B time of 56.32.

The 800 free relay squad of Will Dove, Kyle Maese, Kohlton Norys and Tyler McGill swam a B time of 6:26.36. Junior Robert Looney swam in the 200y and 200m fly, finishing in B times of 1:45.07 and 2:02.35, respectively.

The field for the 2010 NCAA Championships will be announced Wednesday.

The three-day meet will be held on the campus of the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, from March 25-27.

Women’s golf wins Auburn Invitational
The third-ranked Auburn women’s golf tallied its first win of the 2009-10 season as the Tigers claimed the top spot in the one-day Auburn Invitational, carding a 6-over par 294 team total.

“A win is a win and this team needs as much playing time as it can get so that they can get better and better,” said Auburn head coach Kim Evans. “Today was a good day for us to judge some of the things that we need to work on and also some things to be excited about.”

The one-day event was played at the par-72 Auburn University Club and gave the Tigers and three other SEC squads an opportunity to get some valuable playing time before hitting the heavy portion of the spring season.

Auburn’s 294 performance topped the board, while Florida claimed second place at 297 (+9), followed by Georgia in third with a 301 (+13) and Vanderbilt in fourth with a 305 (+17).

Auburn’s Cydney Clanton and Patricia Sanz led the team with even-par 72s, tying for second overall. The pair finished one stroke out of first as Georgia’s Emile Burger took the top individual spot with a 1-under 71.

“I’m really proud of Patty,” said Evans. “Her game has really stepped up this year and we are depending a lot on her. Also, Cydney continues to play a big-time game and will continue to do so and I was proud of how they both came up for us today.”

Sanz entered the clubhouse with Auburn’s first 72 of the day. The Madrid native recorded two birdies in her final three holes to complete the day and place herself in the two-spot on the leaderboard.

“I tried to stay patient all the time and not get on myself too hard,” said Sanz. “I had to wait for the birdies to come and take things one shot at a time.”

Clanton followed with her even-par performance. The junior opened up with a 1-over 37 on the front nine, but rebounded on the back with
birdies on Nos. 11, 13 and 16 to close out with a total 72. The second-place tie gives her another top-5 finish on the year, an accomplishment that she has achieved at each event.

Auburn sophomore Haley Wilson carded her first top-10 performance of the season as she tallied a 2-over 74 on the day. Wilson took a 38 on the front nine, but finished at even-par on the back to finish in a tie for seventh place.

“I was really proud of Haley, she bounced back this week and had a really nice game,” said Evans.

Following Wilson was senior Candace Schepperle and redshirt junior Karlin Beck, as the two tied for 10th place with their 4-over 76 performances. Beck competed as an individual in the event.

Freshman Carlie Yadloczky earned a tie for 18th with her 8-over 80 day while Madison Overbey competed individually and scored a 10-over 82 for a tied for 21st.

Auburn will return to action next weekend as the team will travel to New Orleans for the Tiger/Wave Golf Classic, which is co-hosted by LSU and Tulane. English Turn is the former home of the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

“We’re excited to get in the van and go play in New Orleans next week,” said Evans. “Our first goal is to go with the best attitude. We have to see the course, get our game plan down and get after it.”

Softball rallies past Valparaiso
The Auburn softball team rallied twice in extra innings to defeat Valparaiso, 6-3, in nine innings Sunday in the final game of the War Eagle Classic.

The Tigers improved to 13-6 with the victory and posted a 4-0 record in the tournament. Valparaiso dropped to 12-4 and finished with a 3-1 record in the tournament.

“This was a big win for our team,” Auburn head coach Tina Deese said. “We went back and forth in the extra innings, but I’m really proud of the attitude and toughness of this team. Everybody stepped up and did their part.”

Angel Bunner (5-1) earned the win in relief. Bunner entered in the seventh inning and went two innings, allowing two runs, both unearned. Bunner did not allow a hit, walked two, struck out four and had two wild pitches.

Anna Thompson started, was lifted for a reliever and came back to pitch the ninth inning to earn her fourth save of the season.
Thompson threw seven innings in all, six as starter and one as closer, and allowed one run, earned, on four hits with 13 strikeouts and two walks.

Tied at 3 in the ninth, the Tigers put up three runs on four hits. Kelley Smiley brought pinch-runner Katie Colton home with a single to left for a 4-3 lead. Amber Harrison followed two batters later with a two-run single through the right side that scored Smiley and Caitlin Stangl (single) for a 6-3 lead.

In the bottom of the ninth, Thompson entered after Bunner issued a leadoff walk. Thompson wasted no time in striking out the first two batters she faced. Hayley Bridwell, who was placed at second, was then gunned down by catcher Elizabeth Eisterhold attempting to steal third to end the game.

Valpo jumped on top of the Tigers in the bottom of the fourth inning when Kelsey Phalen launched a solo home run over the wall in straight-away center. It gave Valpo a 1-0 lead and was only the second earned run scored off Thompson in the last 53.0 innings.

Trailing 1-0 in the sixth, Harrison hit a fly ball to the wall in center that Sara Strickland dropped. Harrison advanced to second on the play and moved to third on a sac bunt by Kelsey Cartwright.

Eisterhold then laced a ball to right that Bridwell caught, but dropped, allowing Eisterhold to reach. Harrison scored on the play to tie the game at 1-1.

In the bottom of the seventh, Thompson hit Jill Jacobson to open the frame and was pulled for Bunner. Bunner got Bridwell swinging on strike three for the first out. Strickland then hit into a fielder’s choice, with Jacobson out at second on the play.

With two outs, Bunner hit Jordan Rutkowski to put runners at second and first but slammed the door on the scoring threat when she fanned Phalen on a swinging strike three.

In the eighth, Stangl was placed at second on the tie breaker rule and moved to third on a sac bunt by Harrison. Cartwright then drilled a single to left that scored Stangl for a 2-1 Auburn lead.

Eisterhold followed with a single to right that moved Cartwright to third, putting runners on the corners with one out. Krista Clyde then lofted a sacrifice fly to left that plated Cartwright to push the Auburn lead to 3-1.

Valpo responded in the bottom of the eighth, plating two runs to tie the game. With two outs and Auburn leading 3-2, the tying run scored when Bridwell swung at strike three, starting catcher Caitlin Schultze dropped the ball and threw to first. Smiley, however, was ruled to have dropped the throw during the play and Bridwell was ruled safe and Jessie Marinec (HBP) scored to tie the game.

Shaleigh Jansen (2-3), the third Valpo pitcher of the game, took the loss after allowing three runs, one earned, on five hits in 1 2/3 innings.

Women’s tennis falls in close one at UGA
ATHENS, Ga. — The No. 36 Auburn women’s tennis team nearly knocked off the No. 17 Georgia Bulldogs, but No. 4 singles proved to be the difference as the Bulldogs defeated the Tigers, 4-3, at Dan Magill Tennis Complex on Sunday afternoon.

“What a difference 48 hours makes,” said head coach Tim Gray. “We learned a lot from our extremely disappointing loss to Tennessee on Friday and bounced back with a tremendous amount of fight today. I’m not pleased with the final result, but we learned a lot about our resolve today.“

Auburn (6-4, 0-2 SEC) began the by taking the doubles point, earning decisions in flight No. 2 and No.3.  The freshman pairing of Plamena Kurteva and Paulina Schippers defeated Naoko Ueshima and Lara Fakhoury by an 8-5 count to improve to 9-1 on the season.

Court three captured the point for the Tigers, were seniors Fani Chifchieva and Jil Hastenrath defeated Yvette Hyndman and Cameron Ellis, 8-6.

The Georgia (6-3, 2-0) tandem of Chelsey Gullickson and Nadja Gilchirst, who entered the match as the No. 1 doubles team in the nation, defeated Auburn’s Myrthe Molenveld and Caroline Thornton, 8-5.

Georgia earned its first lead of the meet after winning the first singles matches on the day, as Ellis defeated Schippers, 6-0, 6-0, in No. 5 singles and Gilchrist, ranked No. 23 in the country, defeated Molenveld, 6-1, 6-1.

In the No. 6 slot, Hastenrath defeated Fakhoury, 6-4, 6-3, to even up the match at 2-2. Hyndman went on to knock off Auburn’s Daniela Vukadinovic, 6-0, 7-5, in straight sets as Georgia retook the match lead.

The upset of the day came in No. 1 singles, as Chifchieva, the 76th-ranked player in the nation, defeated the sixth-ranked Gullickson, 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, to send the match into a deciding matchup at fourth-flight singles with Ueshima taking on Thrornton of Auburn. The freshman fell to the experienced senior, 6-4, 6-1.

“I’m truly proud that we went toe-to-toe with one of the country’s best teams and nearly came out on top,” said Gray.

Auburn returns to action Friday, hosting the Florida Gators at 2:30 p.m. at the City of Auburn/Auburn University Yarbrough Tennis Center.

Men’s tennis falls at home to Georgia
A pair of nationally-ranked SEC men’s tennis teams in No. 56 Auburn and No. 11 Georgia met on a warm Sunday afternoon at the City of Auburn/Auburn University Yarbrough Tennis Center, seeing the Bulldogs top the Tigers, 6-1.

The win improved Georgia to 9-2 overall and 2-0 in the SEC, while the Tigers are now 36 overall and 0-2 in the conference.

“Today was a better day for us and I think we competed better than we did on Friday,” head coach Eric Shore said. “This weekend was the toughest part of our schedule this season and it was a learning experience for our young team.”

After Georgia opened the day with an 8-1 win at No. 2 doubles, the two teams and the crowd of 298 were treated to a pair of tough matchups at the other two doubles positions. The team of freshmen Tim Hewitt and Lucas Lopasso found themselves down early at 4-2 to Georgia’s Christian Vitulli and Bo Seal.

The duo, however, tied the score at 4 apiece and held a 1-point advantage throughout most of the match. The Bulldogs weren’t finished, as Vitulli and Seal forced a tie-break and went on to win the set, 9-8 (3).

The seventh-ranked doubles team in the country in Auburn’s Tim Puetz and Alex Stamchev were down 2-0 to Georgia’s Jamie Hunt and Nate Schnugg, but tied the match at 3 at No. 1 doubles. Just like the No. 3 spot, the two teams fought point for point until, tied at 8, the Bulldogs came away with 9-7 tie-break win to take the match, 9-8.

Georgia’s Vitulli recorded the Bulldogs’ second point after topping freshman Oliver Strecker at the No. 6 singles spot in two sets (6-3, 6-3). A pair of nationally-ranked players in Auburn’s No. 26 Puetz and Georgia’s No. 29 Garrapiz met at the No. 1 singles spot, seeing Garrapiz come away with a two-set victory (6-2, 6-3) to give the Bulldogs their third team point.

The Bulldogs secured the team win after No. 105 Schnugg topped Hewitt in two sets (7-5, 6-3) at the No. 2 singles position. Georgia’s No. 104 Seal and Auburn’s Lopasso met at the No. 4 spot and Seal picked up a tough two-set victory, 6-4, 6-4.

Mies and Bernstein battled at the No. 5 singles position and Bernstein opened the match with a 6-2 win in set one. Mies came back and took the second set 6-2, but Bernstein pushed through to take the match with a 6-4 third-set win.

Auburn’s No. 89 Stamchev found himself behind a set after Hunt took the first set, 6-3, at the No. 3 singles spot. The Auburn sophomore wasn’t through as he picked up the 6-2 victory in set two. In the third set, Stamchev pulled ahead early, going up 3-0, and finished with a 6-3 victory to earn his ninth win of the year.

The Tigers will go to Gainesville to play the Florida Gators in their first SEC road match of the season. The matchup is set f0r 2 p.m. on Friday.