AU ROUNDUP: Puetz in finals at ITA tourney

NEW ORLEANS — Junior Tim Puetz picked up a pair of wins to reach the singles final at the Wilson/ITA South Regional held on the campuses of Tulane and University of New Orleans.

Puetz, the second-seeded singles player of the tournament, opened the day with a two-set victory (7-6 (2), 6-2) over Louis Cant of Mississippi State. He followed with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Mississippi’s Tucker Vorster to reach the singles final.

Puetz faces fifth-seeded George Coupland of Mississippi State in today’s final.

Sophomore Alex Stamchev joined forces with Puetz to compete in the doubles quarterfinal. The pair came away with the 8-4 victory over Adrian Forberg Skogeng and Vorster of Mississippi. Stamchev and Puetz take on Benjamin Smith and Calvin Kemp of UNO in the semifinals today.

Schepperle, Clanton lead women's golf
WILMINGTON, N.C. — The Auburn duo of Candace Schepperle and Cydney Clanton combined for 11 birdies in the second round of the NCAA Fall Preview, improving the third-ranked Tigers by four strokes for a 7-over-par 295 to continue its stay at the sixth-place position.

Play was delayed for a short time due to rain.

"We were showing some of our youth out there today," Auburn head coach Kim Evans said. "We let some good things slip by us, but we're getting there. We had some great play out of our leaders, but we have to regroup and keep it simple on such a championship course like this."

The Tigers were led by Schepperle, who tallied three birdies on the front nine before finding three more on the back between Nos. 13-16, giving her a 4-under 68 for the second round. The senior will enter the final round in fourth place after starting the second round in a tie for 36th.

"Candace played very well through the rain today," Evans said. "She putted very well, but she also was hitting the ball very close to the pin. She wasn't satisfied with her numbers yesterday, but she was prepared to play a good round of golf today so she came out and got what she wanted."

Giving Auburn another top-notch performance, Clanton continued her solid play as she carded a 2-under 70 to jump into second place. Despite being even after the first nine, the junior found four birdies on the back, including one on No. 18 to give her another 2-under round.

Clanton, at 4-under par, is only one stroke behind the leader, Cheyenne Woods of Wake Forest at 5-under, while Schepperle is within striking distance at 1-under par.

"Cydney and Candace both had incredible rounds today," Evans said. "They are both in contention to win and are really doing a great job out there. I saw some amazing shots out of them today."

Following for the Tigers, Carlie Yadloczky finished with a 5-over 77, falling into a tie for 40th. Patricia Sanz followed with another 8-over 80 and is now tied for 75th. Rounding out the day for the Tigers, Haley Wilson shot 8-over 80 to move into a tie for 80th.

Now atop the team leaderboard, UCLA shot for a 2-over 290 (583). In second is Wake Forest (591) after shooting the tournament's only sub par-round thus far with a 1-under 287 for the second round. Arizona State (592) holds the third-place spot following an 11-over 299 second round. Duke (593) and Purdue (593) are tied for fourth-place.

Auburn, at 594, is followed by Virginia (596), Southern California (597), Denver (598) and LSU (605) to round out the top-ten.

"We have to make things simpler for ourselves," Evans said. "We need to play the course and take it one shot at a time. This is a true championship golf course and we cannot make things too difficult for us."

The Tigers will begin the final round of the NCAA Fall Preview at 7:30 a.m. with a shotgun start. Auburn will be paired with Purdue and Duke for the round.

Soccer hosts Georgia
The Auburn soccer team will play its final home match of the 2009 season today at 1 p.m. in a regionally televised game on Fox Sports South (Channel 33 in Lee County) when it plays host to No. 19 Georgia.

Auburn comes into the game riding high after collecting a 3-1, come-from-behind win over Tennessee on Thursday night, Auburn’s first-ever win in Knoxville, Tenn.

The win improved Auburn’s record to 7-7-3 overall and 4-5-0 in the Southeastern Conference, which places it sixth in the conference standings with two matches remaining.

Georgia defeated Alabama, 3-0, in Athens, Ga., on Thursday to improve to 13-3-1, 6-3-0 SEC. Georgia stands in third in the SEC East and is in fourth overall, 6 points ahead of Auburn.

Today is senior day for Auburn and the senior class of Stephanie Fransoso, Lizzie Hamersly, Rebecca Howell, Caitlin King, Jenni Prescott and Chelsea Yauch will be honored before the start of the match. During their four-year stay, the senior class helped Auburn win 40 matches, two SEC West titles and advanced to three NCAA Tournaments.

Admission to the match is free.

Women’s tennis picks up 3 wins at ITA
The Auburn women’s tennis team won three main-draw matches on Day 2 of the ITA Southern Regional at the Yarborough Tennis Center on Saturday.

Highlighting the individual performances was senior Fani Chifchieva, who picked up a pair of singles victories to advance to the semi-finals of the tournament.

Chifchieva started the day off by defeating Alabama’s Taylor Lindsey 6-2, 6-4 in the round of 32. Myrthe Molenveld also secured a second-round victory by defeating Louisiana-Lafayette’s Taylor Woodland 6-3, 6-0. Auburn’s lone loss in second-round action was freshman Plamena Kurteva falling to Nicole Kantor of LSU 6-0, 6-2.

In the following round, Chifchieva defeated Karoline Grymel of Troy 6-0, 6-2 to advance to the round of 16. Molenveld fell to Courtney McLane of Alabama 6-3, 6-3, while Kurteva was defeated by LSU’s Nicole Kantor 6-0, 6-2.

Two other Tigers earned consolation singles wins over Mississippi State, as Heather Bybee defeated Natalia Mayuk in straight-sets 6-0, 6-0. Freshman Caroline Thornton defeated Bulldog Danielle Terpko 6-1, 6-1 to pick up Auburn’s final victory of the day.

Day 3 begins today at 9 a.m. with semi-final doubles play. Two rounds of main draw singles play will follow, along with two rounds of singles consolation matches.