AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn remained undefeated at home in men's tennis Sunday at the Yarbrough Tennis Center with a 5-2 win over Georgia Tech and a 6-1 victory over the College of Charleston.
"I saw an entire team that was ready to fight today," Coach Bobby Reynolds said. "After some tough matches last weekend, to come back and play Georgia Tech outside – our first match outdoors – our guys showed up really well. That's what I've told them -- we're going to have to continue to show up as a unit and the end of the day, we've got to get four points somewhere, right?
"It doesn't matter from week to week who gets the points and who's the one that's shining. I thought everybody came up today and was ready to go. You could feel it from the guys that were on the court and the guys that were off the court."
Against Georgia Tech, doubles came down to a back-and-forth contest at the No. 2 spot. Auburn's Jan Galka and Billy Blaydes came from behind to tie it up at 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 and 6-6; the Tiger duo took charge in the tiebreaker, taking a 6-3 lead before winning the tiebreak 7-5 to give Auburn the team doubles point.
Tyler Stice and Alejandro Moreno posted their third victory of the spring season with a 6-1 victory in No. 3 doubles over GT's Brandon McKinney and Robert Bauer.
In singles, Auburn captured the first set in four of the six matches. Tiger freshman Billy Blaydes was the first to put a team point on the scoreboard with a 6-1, 6-3 victory on court six over Robert Bauer, and Jan Galka came through on court four with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Rohan Sachdev to put Auburn ahead by a 3-1 count. That was Galka's 40th career singles win at Auburn.
Raul Dobai clinched the team win for the Tigers with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Elias Shokiv on court five, and freshman Alejandro Moreno, down 7-2 on a third-set tiebreaker against GT's Keshav Chopra, never lost focus and reeled off seven straight point to take a 9-7 lead and an eventual 11-9 advantage in winning 7-5, 3-6, 1-0.
In the nightcap with the College of Charleston, the Tigers swept the doubles competition. Tyler Stice and Will Nolan posted a 6-1 win on court three to lead the action, and wins by the Auburn tandems of Galka and Blaydes (6-1) and Finn Murgett and Raul Dobai (6-2) clinched the team doubles point.
In singles, Auburn took five first sets over Charleston, and Billy Blaydes, Raul Dobai and Alejandro Moreno posted the singles win to clinch the match for the Tigers. Spencer Gray and Tyler Stice added singles wins after the team match was decided.
"We go back indoors at with ODU (Friday) and then back here with Wisconsin Sunday, so we've got to make sure that we're continuing to take advantage of opportunities," Reynolds said. "We've got to take the opportunities and we've got to be aggressive. We've got to do a still better job of making the first serve and being impressive with the first ball after the serve, especially indoors. That'll be a point of emphasis that we continue to work on. But I want our guys to enjoy these wins; we needed this success and it builds excitement for the week ahead."
Auburn is now 5-2 for the spring season. Georgia Tech is 6-3 and the College of Charleston is 0-2. Coach Bobby Reynolds recorded his 75th career win at Auburn in the victory over Georgia Tech.
Auburn visits Old Dominion Friday for a morning match. The Tigers are home again next Sunday in their final home match before SEC competition begins, hosting Wisconsin at noon at the Yarbrough Tennis Center (1717 Richland Road, Auburn). Admission is free.
Auburn 5, Georgia Tech 2
Singles
#72 Andres Martin (GT) def. #66 Tyler Stice (AU) 6-2, 6-1
Marcus McDaniel (GT) def. #110 Will Nolan (AU) 6-3, 3-6, 7-5
Alejandro Moreno (AU) def. Keshav Chopra (GT) 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (11-9)
Jan Galka (AU) def. Rohan Sachdev (GT) 6-2, 6-2
Raul Dobai (AU) def. Elias Shokry (GT) 7-5, 6-3
Billy Blaydes (AU) def. Robert Bauer (GT) 6-1, 6-3
Doubles
Martin/McDaniel (GT) def. Finn Murgett/Dobai (AU) 6-0
Galka/Billy Blaydes (AU) def. Shokry/Chopra (GT) 7-6 (7-5)
Stice/Moreno (AU) def. Brandon McKinney/Bauer (GT) 6-1
Time of match: 3:13; Order of finish: Doubles: 1,3,2; Singles: 6,1,4,5,3,2; Official: Donna Jerome
Auburn 6, College of Charleston 1
Singles
#66 Tyler Stice (AU) def. Mattia Bernardi (CC) 6-1, 6-2
Zac Larke (CC) def. #110 Will Nolan (AU) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)
Alejandro Moreno (AU) def. Robby Krick (CC) 6-2, 6-1
Raul Dobai (AU) def. Matias Gaedechens (CC) 6-3, 6-1
Billy Blaydes (AU) def. Johnny Wang (CC) 6-2, 6-1
Spencer Gray (AU) def. Noah Borges (CC) 6-2, 6-2
Doubles
Murgett/Dobai (AU) def. Bernardi/Krick (CC) 6-2
Galka/Billy Blaydes (AU) def. Z. Larke/Wang (CC) 6-1
Stice/Nolan (AU) def. Juan Diego Rojas/Jordyn Larke (CC) 6-1
Time of match: 2:23; Order of finish: Doubles: 3,2,1; Singles: 5,4,3,6,1,2; Official: Donna Jerome