No. 27 Auburn men's tennis hosts its last home action of the regular season with three matches this weekend, including visits by two of the nation's top three singles players, at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn.
The Tigers host No. 9 South Carolina in a 3 p.m. match Friday. Fans will receive free Chick-fil-A while supplies last.
Sunday, Auburn entertains No. 3 Florida at noon and Samford at 5 p.m. Senior Tad Maclean will be honored during the Florida match. Fans will receive free Kona Ice at the noon match and free Zoner's pizza at the later match while supplies last.
"Going into this weekend and next, we have four teams we play in the Top 10: South Carolina, Florida and then we travel to Georgia and Tennessee. It's a different type of pressure for us – there is no pressure on us – we have everything to gain and nothing to lose," Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said.
"We've played 21 matches and the majority of the time the target has been on our back, but now it's our turn to flip the script. We have nothing to lose, everything to gain and we can find out if we're just as good as they are except that number in front of their team name.
"South Carolina historically has given us problems and the guys know it. It often comes down to their English guys against our English guys. They're physical and we know what they're going to do from the doubles standpoint – they kick a lot of serves and try to get into the net quickly on us. That's where we have to be ready for it from the beginning – it's a mindset.
"They have very, very good singles players who are very strong 1-4. We've got to be ready for that mental battle. And Florida returns the exact same team minus one that won the national championship last year, plus a transfer player who is excellent in doubles. So our challenge is obvious."
Auburn is 17-5 for the spring season, 5-3 in SEC play and ranked No. 27 in the latest ITA team ratings and No. 24 in the Tennis Channel/USTA Top 25. No. 9 South Carolina is 18-5 overall and 7-2 in conference action.
No. 3 Florida is ranked No. 1 in the Tennis Channel/USTA Top 25 poll; the Gators are 17-2 overall and 9-0 in SEC action before their match at Alabama Friday evening. Samford is 4-12 overall and the Bulldogs play at Chattanooga Saturday.
In the latest ITA individual rankings, Tyler Stice has moved up to 46th in singles, and Tad Maclean and Finn Murgett are ranked No. 36 nationally as a doubles tandem.
Maclean, with 68 career doubles wins, now ranks ninth all-time among Auburn career leaders in that category, and his 132 combined career wins rank 15th in Auburn history.
South Carolina's Daniel Rodrigues is ranked No. 3 nationally in singles; Rodrigues paired with Connor Thomson is the No. 28-ranked doubles team, while Rodrigues paired with Beau Pelletier is ranked No. 62.
Florida's Ben Shelton comes in as the nation's top-ranked singles performer; five other Gators – Sam Riffice (22), Duarte Vale (108), Joshua Goodger (117), Mattias Siimar (120) and Andy Andrade (125) – are also ranked in singles. In doubles, Riffice and Shelton are No. 22 and Andrade and Siimar rank No. 25.
All Auburn home tennis action is at the Yarbrough Tennis Center (1717 Richland Road, Auburn) and admission is free.
"This past weekend was unbelievable with the fans – Friday and Sunday were great," Reynolds added. "Having people come out on beautiful days and kids run around and scream and yell, it doesn't bother us – anything goes in college tennis.
"I hope people will come by and see what we're about – we'll keep building and marketing to that, and having the results to go along with it because winning draws people in."
