AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn men's tennis team gets its first taste of SEC road competition this weekend with matches at Vanderbilt and Kentucky.
Auburn, 11-8 on the season (0-2 SEC), visits No. 26 Vanderbilt (11-3, 1-1 SEC) Friday for a 4 p.m. contest at the Currey Tennis Center in Nashville.
Sunday, Auburn visits No. 44 Kentucky (7-7, 1-1 SEC) for a 1 p.m. match at the Boone Tennis Complex in Lexington. The Wildcats host No. 17 Alabama on Friday.
"Everybody in the SEC is tough – going on the road makes it a little bit tougher," Auburn coach Bobby Reynolds said. "Hopefully we'll be outside, but the weather and change of courts will make it a test for our guys.
"The courts going from Vanderbilt to Kentucky are very, very different. Vanderbilt's courts are a little bit slower and have a higher bounce; Kentucky's are lightning fast. It's really all about getting control of the point early, serving big and being ready to go.
"We made a good jump from the Texas A&M match to the LSU match with two or three positions playing the aggressive tennis the coaches were looking for. Now it's getting all six guys going out and playing aggressive tennis, taking that leap of faith and being willing to go out there and not worrying about what's going to happen."
In the latest Oracle/ITA rankings, Kentucky's Ryotaro Matsumura is No. 44 in singles nationally.
Auburn continues its road swing with a match Thursday, March 14, at No. 40 Ole Miss. The Tigers return home for a pair of matches vs. No. 10 Mississippi State and Alcorn State on Saturday, March 16, at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.