Auburn's Tad Maclean and Finn Murgett continued their quest for a national title with a convincing win in the NCAA doubles championship semifinals Thursday evening at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.
The Tiger tandem, ranked No. 26 nationally, faced No. 71-rated Guy Den Ouden and Adrian Oetzbach of Pepperdine in the semifinals, and the Auburn duo easily prevailed by a 6-4, 6-1 score.
Murgett and Maclean will face three-seed Adam Walton and Pat Harper of Tennessee in the national final Friday. Murgett and Maclean defeated the Tennessee duo 7-6 (7-5) when they met during the regular season in March.
"It's crazy. We've just been taking it match by match and I wasn't expecting this, but I'm so glad we're here right now," Murgett said following the match.
"It's been a lot of hard work," Maclean added. "The SEC is so tough and we've had it tough the past few years, but I think we're really starting to get into our stride as a team. This just shows what we're capable of at Auburn."
Match time Friday will be no earlier than 12:30 p.m. Central, after the conclusion of the men's singles final. Live scoring of the NCAA championships is available via TennisTicker; fans can also watch the match by downloading the TennisOne app for free on mobile devices.
"These guys are clicking on all cylinders and it's really fun to be part of the ride," Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. "The areas of their game we have been working on all year are shaping up at the most important tournament of the year.
"Tennessee is a very good doubles pair, which plays traditional aggressive doubles, so Finn and Tad will need to match their movement. We had success in the spring versus this tandem, but we will look to gameplan off their past meetings along with what we have seen this week.
"I'm excited for what's ahead and I know these guys will leave it all out on the court tomorrow."
Auburn's Mark Kovacs and Andy Columbo won the NCAA doubles title in 2002. Maclean and Murgett have earned All-America status, the first Auburn players to do so since Andreas Mies and Alex Stamchev in doubles in 2012.
The duo of Maclean, a junior from Cornwall, England, and Murgett, a sophomore from Holmfirth, England, entered the NCAA championships having gone 11-10 this spring at No. 1 doubles, facing 11 ranked teams, and 16-13 for the year.
