AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn women's tennis team will host a fall tournament this weekend as seven teams will compete in the inaugural Marliss Gruver Fall Invitational. The tournament runs Friday-Sunday at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
Play begins at 9 a.m. each day. With rain in the forecast for Friday, the first day's action will likely take place in the indoor facility. Saturday and Sunday's action is tentatively scheduled to be played outdoors. Admission is free to all fans.
The individual tournament will be contested in four flighted singles draws and two flighted doubles draws. Players from Auburn, Arkansas, Georgia State, Kansas, Miami, Oklahoma and Ole Miss will comprise the 32-player singles field and 16-team doubles draw. Each singles competitor and each doubles team will be guaranteed three matches.
"This is a really good opportunity to bring in some good teams and be able to play tennis in the fall in Auburn, and for a very good cause," Auburn head coach Lauren Spencer said. "We're really excited about it."
This weekend's tournament is named in memory of Marliss Gruver, who served as director of operations for the Auburn men's and women's tennis teams from July of 2015 until her passing on Nov. 29 of last year after a brief battle with melanoma.
"(Marliss) was someone who kept us in line, kept us organized," Spencer said. "We loved her, and she loved everyone. There was nothing Marliss couldn't do. She was a huge emotional support for all the coaches and both teams. She loved us unconditionally, even at our worst, and she was our biggest fan. Obviously, her passing left a huge hole in our hearts last fall.
"I felt really compelled to make sure that her name and what she provided for our team really lived on within our program. If she were here, she would want me to raise awareness for the type of cancer – melanoma – that she died from. That's how we want to honor her memory and educate people. It's a great opportunity for us to say, 'Hey, we're an outdoor sport, we use sunscreen a lot, we do a lot of skin protection and prevention.' We want to use this tournament to be able to let everyone know and bring awareness to the cause."
For updates from the tournament and the latest on Auburn women's tennis, follow @AuburnWTennis on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. A recap with daily results will follow each day's action on AuburnTigers.com.
The Marliss Gruver Fall Invitational begins Friday morning at the Yarbrough Tennis Center - hear from @CoachLSpencer about what Marliss meant to our program.#WarEagle | #NoWhiteFlags pic.twitter.com/WZ00Z8I0oA
— Auburn Women's Tennis (@AuburnWTennis) October 25, 2018