AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn men's tennis team begins SEC action this weekend with matches at No. 16/23 South Carolina and No. 4/6 Florida.
The Tigers (9-6) will face the Gamecocks (7-3) Friday at 2 p.m. CT at the Carolina Tennis Center in Columbia. Sunday, the Tigers visit Florida (11-2) for an 11 a.m. CT match at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville.
South Carolina is ranked No. 16 in this week's Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25 and No. 23 in the latest Oracle/ITA D1 rankings. The Gators are No. 4 in the Tennis Channel/USTA listing and No. 6 in the Oracle/ITA rankings.
"South Carolina returns the defending national champion in singles in Paul Jubb, and at two and three, they have sophomores ranked in the top 25," Auburn coach Bobby Reynolds said. "They're a pretty seasoned team, so that will be a challenge for us. But we have a chance to get out strong in doubles and then just play freely with no expectations.
"Florida is heads above most of the other SEC teams at this point; their one to six is so deep that we will be matching up with one of the best teams in the country. Our message is don't be afraid or upset if you don't come out with the result you want, because we will see where we measure ourselves.
"Ultimately, we want to get to the top of the SEC and get guys playing professional tennis after their four years here, so you have to measure yourself against guys who are better than you and maybe three or four years older than you at that moment in time. You've got to be able to take and learn from that."
Ranked players for the Gamecocks include Daniel Rodrigues (36), Raphael Lambling (38), Paul Jubb (48) and Connor Thomson (115) in singles, and Rodgues and Lambling (37) and Jubb and Thomson (38) in doubles.
Florida has six ranked singles players – Sam Riffice (4), Oliver Crawford (18), Duarte Vale (21), Andy Andrade (84), Blaise Bicknell (90) and Lukas Greif (108) – and three ranked doubles combinations: Crawford and Riffice (14), Johannes Ingildsen and Will Grant (33) and Ingildsen and Brian Berdusco (51).
Auburn opens home SEC play on Friday, March 6, when the Tigers host No. 39 Vanderbilt in a 2 p.m. CT match. All Auburn home tennis action is at the Yarbrough Tennis Center (771 Yarbrough Farms Blvd., Auburn) and admission is free.