Auburn men's tennis saw a lot of individual and team success during the fall portion of the unusual 2020-21 schedule.
"The fall was great. I'm so glad we could play eight matches; our guys were ecstatic to be able to compete, after they had worked so hard to stay safe and be able to play," Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said.
Because of the covid pandemic, Southeastern Conference programs were allowed to participate in three different weekend tournaments throughout the fall, with only SEC squads competing.
The Tigers hosted the first event of the season at the Yarbrough Tennis Center, with Florida, Alabama, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt on hand to compete in the Tiger Fall Invitational October 2-4, where freshmen Tyler Stice and Jackson Ross were the doubles champions; the pair went 3-0 in doubles action over the weekend.
Stice was the overall singles winner and Auburn's tandem of Tad Maclean and Finn Murgett were the winners in doubles at the Vanderbilt Invitational October 16-18. During the weekend, Auburn posted 16 wins in singles and totaled six doubles victories in competition against Vanderbilt, Auburn, Arkansas and Kentucky at the Currey Tennis Center in Nashville.
The Tigers finished the fall season in November at the UGA Invitational, where Auburn posted five wins in singles and two doubles victories in competition against Florida and Ole Miss.
"Tyler (Stice) proved to himself he is someone to be reckoned with on the court," Coach Reynoldss said of the second-season player from Atlanta, Ga. "He competed well at the top level in the fall and overcame a huge mental block; even in his losses, he had a chance to serve for the win in three of those matches.
"Tad (Maclean) showed heart after two elbow surgeries kept him out of action for a year. The most important thing is that he came back with no pain and showed he had mentally overcome the injury as well," Reynolds said of the junior from Cornwall, England. "Facing ones and twos in SEC play has really fueled him for the spring.
"You go on down the list and all of our guys played so much good tennis; they battled hard and bounced back for the next match even when they didn't get the win. We made our mark starting slow but finishing strong. All in all, I can't be happier with the way our guys practiced and conditioned throughout the fall. We have to be one of the best conditioned teams in the SEC and that's something we can control."
The Tigers had great success across the board in singles play during the fall; top winners in singles were Spencer Gray (5 wins), Finn Murgett (5 wins), Stice (4 wins), Tim Dollman (3 wins) and Maxwell Giddens (3 wins).
"In doubles, we were able to find some pairings that gelled and found success," Reynolds added. "That's very exciting for coaches, because from here on, we're able to work on the tennis side and how each pairing can get better, not still sorting out and experimenting with which pairings might have chemistry."
Maclean and Murgett posted five wins in doubles. The tandem of Giddens and Tom Wright produced four victories, while Stice and Jackson Ross and Dollman and Gray came through with three wins for each pair.
"A lot of the lineup will be based on how they return from the holiday break, but we're finally believing in our opportunities individually and collectively for the spring season," Reynolds said.
"The fall action really sets us up as a team and as a conference going into the spring, having had a chance to build and test that match toughness."
Auburn will begin dual match play in the spring semester; the spring schedule has not yet been set by the SEC. All home matches are held at the Yarbrough Tennis Center and admission is free.
