The No. 25 Auburn men's tennis team is in action Friday and Saturday as part of the field for the 74th annual Blue Gray National Tennis Classic played at Lagoon Park and the O'Connor Tennis Center in Montgomery, Ala.
Other teams in the men's bracket include Alabama, No. 19 Arizona, No. 30 Middle Tennessee State, No. 66 Nebraska, No. 29 Princeton, No. 48 Tulane and VCU. Each team will play three matches during this venerable weekend tournament, the last tune-up for the Tigers before SEC play begins.
Auburn will face VCU in opening round competition at 8:30 a.m. Friday at Lagoon Park; the winner will face the winner of the Nebraska/Princeton match Friday at 2:30 p.m. at Lagoon Park, with the losers of those opening matches playing Friday at 2:30 p.m. at the O'Connor Tennis Center. Arizona vs. Alabama and Middle Tennessee State vs. Tulane are the other opening round matches.
"They do such a great job down in Montgomery with the Blue-Gray and there's such a huge fan base of either alumni of Auburn or of tennis there and the host families over the years that continue to follow us," Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. "It's just a really unique event that they put on and our guys absolutely love it.
"It'll be a full dual match Friday morning, starting doubles and singles. Then you take a break for lunch, you come back, and you start the doubles of your second match, then you are done for the day. You come back on Saturday morning, finish the singles of that second match, and then in the afternoon, you play a third full dual match, so a lot of tennis.
"We'll go in as the No. 2 seed; Arizona is the one seed based off of rankings. We've got to be ready for three grueling matches against three teams that are going to be Top 50/Top 60 in the country. So, it's really also a mental and an emotional battle that we have to be ready for, as well as the physical challenge of that number of matches in two days."
Auburn is 8-1 for the spring season, the best start for the Tigers since the 2005 campaign. The Tigers are ranked No. 25 in the latest ITA team ratings.
In the latest ITA individual rankings, the Tigers continue to have three ranked players in singles: Tad Maclean (45), Tyler Stice (87) and Jan Galka (100).
For draws, schedules and scores this weekend, go to www.BlueGrayTennis.com.
Auburn opens SEC play at home Friday, March 4, when the Tigers host LSU in a 10 a.m. match. All Auburn home tennis action is at the Yarbrough Tennis Center (1717 Richland Road, Auburn) and admission is free.