Coming off of a six-game winning streak, the No. 15 UK tennis team was expecting nothing short of a battle against the No. 16 Auburn Tigers.

To start out the match, seniors Emily Fanning and Mami Adachi picked up a doubles win against Auburn’s Alizee Michaud and Taylor Russo (6-2); however, it wasn’t enough to seal the first point as the other two doubles teams were bested by their opponents.

The Cats struck back in the beginning of the singles matches, as sophomore Diana Tkachenko grabbed a point to tie the game up 1-1. Shortly after, junior Mikulskyte gave the Cats the lead by defeating nationally-ranked Jaeda Daniel (No. 60), and Adachi tacked another point onto the lead by beating sophomore Russo in three sets.

With the Cats ahead 3-1, Auburn pushed back as senior Michaud clutched a win against Fanning. The game was tied shortly after when freshman Lesedi Jacobs was defeated in game No. 5 of single matches.

Closely matched, the teams struggled to gain leverage, and after over four hours, UK was defeated by the Tigers in game six of single matches (4-3) as freshman Brianna Tulloch fell to Auburn’s Georgie Axon.

Despite the snapping of UK’s winning streak, head coach Carlos Dranda said he remains confident in his team.

“The main goal is to continue improvement and to make sure our players are getting better not only on the tennis court but in everything they do,” Dranda said.

Dranda was also quick to note that there was no star player in their performance against Auburn; instead, it was a team effort.