AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn women's tennis team will kick off the 2019 fall season and the head coaching career of Caroline Lilley this weekend as the Tigers host the Marliss Gruver Fall Invitational at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
The tournament runs Friday-Sunday with play beginning at 9 a.m. Friday and Saturday and either 8 or 9 a.m. Sunday. All matches are expected to be played outdoors with a favorable weather forecast. Admission is free to all home Auburn tennis events.
"I'm excited to see them compete," Lilley said. "I know they're probably a little excited and nervous as well. They've been working incredibly hard our first three weeks. We did a ton of fitness and conditioning early; the last 10 days or so we've done a lot more tennis.
"They're definitely ready from a physical standpoint, they're ready from a mental standpoint. I want them to know that this is a process. We're not expecting their best tennis now; we're going to work toward playing our best tennis in the spring. But this is one more step in that development process. And I want them to enjoy competing."
A total of 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams from eight schools will compete in the three-day event. Student-athletes from Auburn, Kansas, Kansas State, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Penn State, Wisconsin and Yale are scheduled to play.
Auburn will have four players competing in the event as seniors Taylor Russo and Georgie Axon, junior Madeline Meredith and freshman Selin Ovunc will play both singles and doubles. The doubles team of Russo and Meredith enters the fall season ranked No. 46 nationally, Axon will be playing her first collegiate match since the end of the 2018 season, and Ovunc will be making her Auburn debut.
Play will begin with two flighted rounds of singles Friday, followed by one round of singles and two rounds of doubles on Saturday. The tournament will conclude Sunday with one round each of singles and doubles. A link to updated tournament draws will be available on AuburnTigers.com throughout the weekend.
Lilley begins her first season at Auburn after spending the last four seasons as an assistant coach at Kansas. She takes over a team that returns five letter-winners and welcomes three newcomers for the 2019-20 season.
The 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, 2017, after a brief battle with melanoma.
For updates throughout the weekend and for the latest on Auburn women's tennis, follow @AuburnWTennis on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.