CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—Columbia claimed the doubles point and junior Jennifer Kerr won her singles match, but Auburn won four of the five singles matches en route to a 4-2 win over Lions in the ITA Kick-Off Consolation match Saturday evening at the University of North Carolina's Cone-Kenfield Indoor Tennis Center.
 
Columbia drops to 2-2 on the year and concludes its ITA Kick-Off competition. Auburn improves to 3-1.
 
Columbia took a 1-0 lead as it claimed the doubles point with two wins. After Auburn's No. 9 ranked No. 1 doubles team of Taylor Russo and Selin Ovunc defeated Columbia junior Christie Wan and sophomore Melissa Sakar 6-2, the Lions followed with back-to-back victories. First-year Akanksha Bhan and junior Paulina Ferrari registered a key 6-2 victory over Auburn's No. 59 ranked Madeline Meredith and Georgie Axon, then first-years Michelle Xu and Julia Haynes clinched the point with a hard-fought 7-5 win over Auburn's Carolyn Ansari and Yu Chen.
 
Auburn took a 2-1 lead with back-to-back singles wins at No. 5 when Ansari defeated Columbia first-year Michelle Xu 6-3, 6-1 and Axon followed with a 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles over Wan. Kerr then tied the match at 2-2 with a 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 3 singles over Auburn's No. 123 ranked Yu Chen.
 
But Auburn claimed two more singles wins to take the win. No. 79 Russo defeated No. 65 Bhan at No. 1 singles 6-3, 7-5 and Meredith won a tough 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 decision at No. 6 singles over Columbia first-year Shivani Amineni.
 
Columbia was one of 60 NCAA Division I women's teams selected to compete in the ITA Kick-Off event. Selections were made in order of the final 2018-19 Oracle/ITA Tennis Rankings, which Columbia finished ranked No. 42 nationally. It is the sixth time and first year since 2017 that Columbia has been selected to compete in the ITA Kick-Off event.
 
Columbia is back in action in at Maryland on Saturday, Feb. 1 at noon.