Auburn's Tyler Stice gave a strong effort Monday afternoon in the opening round of the NCAA singles championships, but the Tiger came up just short in a 7-6 (8), 7-5 decision to No. 42 Steve Forman of Northwestern.
"This was a hard-fought match that could have gone either way in the end," Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. "Tyler had an early break in the first set, but couldn't maintain the lead, and then had a couple of set points in the tiebreaker.
"A lot of credit goes to Steve Forman, who consistently played aggressive tennis from start to finish. He put Tyler on defense quickly with the serve and forehand; Tyler fought as much as possible to diffuse that power, but it was too much today, especially on the deciding points.
"This finishes another great year for Tyler and he is consistently growing with his game. It just hurts that he couldn't make the splash he wanted here at the NCAA tournament."
Despite falling behind 5-2 in the first set, Stice rallied to tie the set at 6-6, but Forman prevailed by a 10-8 count in the ultracompetitive tiebreaker. In the second set, Forman took a 4-2 lead, but Stice again fought to close the match to 5-5 before Forman captured the win.
Stice, a two-time first team all-SEC player, finishes the season with a 19-13 singles record, having faced 20 ranked opponents.
Tuesday, Auburn's Tad Maclean and Finn Murgett, the 2021 NCAA doubles runners-up, will face No. 16 Brian Carnock and Mac Kiger of North Carolina in their opening round match of the 32-team doubles championship. Murgett and Maclean received a No. 5-8 seed for this year's doubles tournament, earning them All-America status for the second consecutive season. The duo is ranked No. 6 nationally with an 18-5 overall and 10-2 SEC record this spring.
All NCAA competition is being played at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Illinois. Live coverage is available on the TennisOne app. All matches in the individual championships are best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a 7-point tiebreaker (first to seven points, must win by two points) at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
Auburn finished 21-11 as a team, Auburn's first 20-win season since 2002. After reaching the SEC tournament semifinals, the Tigers were ranked No. 24 in the latest ITA team ratings and No. 22 in the Tennis Channel/USTA Top 25.
