AUBURN, Ala. – The 17th-ranked Auburn women's tennis team plays its final two matches of the 2021 regular season this weekend as they travel to No. 16 Tennessee and No. 3 Georgia.
The Tigers (12-5, 7-4 SEC) take on the Lady Vols at 11 a.m. CT Thursday in Knoxville, then head south to Athens for another 11 a.m. CT start against Georgia Saturday.
"Definitely two tough road matches, but two matches that we couldn't be more prepared for," Auburn head coach Caroline Lilley said. "Every single spot in their lineup is talented. Two difficult places to play, but every place in the SEC is difficult to play, so we fully expect that. The biggest thing we preach with our team is approaching every single match the same. We've played really well in the SEC season, we've been competitive in almost every match we've played, and a lot of times we've come out on the winning side."
Auburn looks to bounce back after a pair of tough matches last week against Texas A&M and LSU. The Tigers dropped a 4-1 decision to the Aggies Thursday, then fought to the last point against the Bayou Bengals Saturday but came up short, 4-3. Sophomore Selin Ovunc enters the weekend ranked No. 62 nationally in singles, and junior Yu Chen is ranked No. 100.
"The close ones, those hurt a little more," Lilley said of last week's contests with A&M and LSU. "Both those matches were incredibly close. We were in the driver's seat, and that's kind of a different experience for us. We've always been the team coming back. We struggled to close out sets, we struggled to close out matches.
"When it's that close, the adjustments are super small. It's not something massive that needs to change. We're going to be better against Tennessee and Georgia because of the matches we played against Texas A&M and LSU."
Tennessee (12-6, 6-4) is riding a two-match win streak after a pair of home victories over Arkansas and Missouri last week. The Lady Vols have three ranked singles players – No. 45 Carly Briggs, No. 68 Eleonora Molinaro and No. 96 Rebeka Mertena – and two ranked doubles tandems in No. 23 Daria Kuczer and Esther Adeshina, along with No. 78 Briggs and Tenika McGiffin.
Georgia (14-1, 10-0) has clinched the SEC regular-season title and has won 13 straight matches headed into this weekend, dropping just three team points in SEC play. The Bulldogs have the nation's top-ranked player in Katarina Jokic, along with No. 12 Meg Kowalski, No. 59 Lea Ma, No. 61 Morgan Coppoc, and No. 92 Marta Gonzalez. In doubles, the team of Jokic and Ariana Arsenault is ranked No. 3 nationally, with Jokic and Anna Hertel at No. 24.
Live stats and live video for both matches will be available at the respective host schools' websites; links for both matches can be found on the schedule page at AuburnTigers.com.
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Women's tennis regular season wraps up at Tennessee, Georgia
