COLLEGE STATION, Texas — In quarterfinal action at the NCAA Doubles Tournament, the Auburn duo of Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz kept their season alive, rallying to top Georgia’s Nate Schnugg and Jamie Hunt, the four-seed duo in the tournament, in three sets to move into the semifinal round.
Starting the day, Tsyrenov and Puetz, ranked as the No. 10 duo in the ITA rankings, fell behind after dropping the first set, 3-6. However, the Auburn pair roared back in the second set, 6-2, to even the match. With the victory and advancement in the tournament up for grabs, the Auburn duo took the third set, 6-3, and earned a spot in the semifinals.
With the win, Tsyrenov and Puetz keep their season alive and added to their 36-11 overall record, while Hunt and Schnugg, the No. 5 ITA doubles pair, ended their season at 32-12. The victory will give Auburn a representative pair in semifinal action for the first time since 2002, when Mark Kovacs and Andrew Columbo went the distance and earned the doubles crown as the Tigers’ No. 1 duo.
Tsyrenov and Puetz will meet Tennessee’s John Patrick Smith and Davey Sandgren in the semifinals, a team that they have faced twice this season. Smith and Sandgren are ranked as the No. 3 team in the ITA rankings, but are seeded as the No. 2 team in the tournament. Earlier this season, the Auburn pair took an 8-5 win during the Blue/Gray Classic and held an 8-7 lead over Smith and Sandgren during the regular season match-up between the two schools, although the match went unfinished.
In their journey to the semifinals, the Tennessee duo defeated Baylor’s David Galic and Jordan Rux, 6-4, 6-2, in the opening round. They continued by topping Keen Feeder and James Meredith of Boise State, 6-3, 7-5, in the round of 16 before downing Steve Forman and Cory Parr of Wake Forest, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, in the quarterfinals.
The match-up between Tsyrenov/Puetz and Smith/Sandgren is slated to begin today at noon at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
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