The No. 25 Auburn men's tennis team opens SEC play at home Friday morning, when the Tigers host No. 42 LSU in a 10 a.m. match at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn.
"This week is going to be huge for us, where we play at home against LSU and then we play Indiana and then we go to Arkansas and back home against Alabama," Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. "The guys know that this is an important stretch for us for the next several weeks to take care of the business that we're supposed to take care of.
"LSU has a very talented No. 1 player in Ronnie Hohmann, one of the best in the country when he's playing on all cylinders. Tyler (Stice) has a great matchup against him if that's how we end up going, because Tyler makes thousands of balls and he's going to make you play over and over and over again. It's going to be outside and a little warmer, so the key to that matchup for us is making sure he carries the depth – when you play against a great ballstriker, you can't put it right around the waist. You have to get the ball out of his strike zone, so when he tries to dictate, it's not in his comfort zone.
"They have some guys we've never seen before, so I'm going to try to get the matchups where we were successful last year. At the end of the day, going from indoor tennis to outdoor tennis, we just have to have the mindset that we're going to 5-10 balls every single point and be physical in our mentality.
"We need to go out and play with confidence. We must take what we're working on in practice and be relentless every single point after point after point, and not feel like it should be given to us. Taking what I saw the last day of Blue Gray and continuing to transition that against LSU, I think we'll come out ahead."
Auburn is 10-2 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. No. 42 LSU is 7-2 entering SEC action.
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). LSU's Ronnie Hohmann is ranked No. 35 in singles.
With a doubles win, Maclean will move into the Auburn career top 15 for doubles victories; the senior has 60 career doubles wins entering Friday's match.
All Auburn home tennis action is at the Yarbrough Tennis Center (1717 Richland Road, Auburn) and admission is free. Fans Friday will receive free Chick-fil-A chicken minis while supplies last.