COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The run to the NCAA Championship ended Sunday for Auburn’s Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz with the pair falling, 6-4, 6-2, to Tennessee’s John-Patrick Smith and Davey Sandgren in the semifinal of the NCAA Doubles Championship.
The semifinal run was the best for an Auburn doubles team since Mark Kovacs and Andrew Columbo took the title in 2002, also in College Station, Texas.
“It was a great run by these guys, they played very well all week,” said Auburn head coach Eric Shore. “You have to give Tennessee credit, they got off to a really good start and played really well all day.”
After losing the first set, Auburn was trailing 2-0 in the second set when play was halted two hours for a weather delay.
“I thought we could get some momentum back after the rain delay,” said Shore. “But, Tim pulled his groin and really could not move after that.”
However, with Tsyrenov and Puetz making Auburn’s first semifinal appearance in seven years, Shore was pleased with the season they put together.
“In the big picture, it was a great run for these guys and a great season,” said Shore. “You have to have a lot of good breaks, have to have a lot of things go your way. Only 32 teams make it into this tournament and we got down to the final four teams, so it was a great run.”
With the loss, the No. 10-ranked duo of Tsyrenov and Puetz falls to 36-12 on the season. Smith and Sandgren, who are ranked third in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association but are the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, improve to 32-11 along with their NCAA final bid.
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