AUBURN, Ala. – For the first time since 2009, Auburn will begin play at the SEC Championship on their home court. The Tigers, a 9-seed, will face 8-seed Florida on Thursday at 3 p.m. at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
"We're facing a great team," Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said about the Gators. "You look at the SEC and you have eight schools in the Top 25, so there are no easy matches. You look at a Florida team that we didn't have success against earlier this season, but there are matchups where we thought we could have been successful when we watched the video. A lot of the matchups for the SEC championship are going to be the same players playing each other again."
Last season at the SEC Championship hosted by the University of Georgia, Auburn made it to the semifinal round after a dramatic upset of then-No. 9 South Carolina with a 4-2 victory over the Gamecocks. The Tigers have not won the SEC Championship since 1984 and have won two titles in program history.
Auburn finished the regular season with a 17-11 overall record and a 5-8 mark in Southeastern Conference play. The Tigers have now recorded 17 regular season wins in back-to-back seasons.
Auburn's Tyler Stice, who is currently the 57th ranked singles player in the nation, holds a 17-14 singles record and an 18-10 doubles record overall this season. Stice has reached a 13-10 singles mark as well as a 12-8 doubles mark in dual matches this season. The two-time first-team all-SEC selection, who has played at the top of the Auburn singles lineup in every appearance this season, has picked up six singles victories over ranked opponents including in his most recent match over No. 64 Raphael Perot of Texas A&M.
In his first season on the Plains, Auburn freshman Alejandro Moreno posted a 17-9 singles record and an 18-9 doubles record overall during the regular season. Moreno regularly played at No. 3 in the Tigers' singles lineup, where he has accumulated a 9-3 record including a ranked victory over Joshua Lapadat of Kentucky, the 47th ranked singles player in the nation. The Knoxville, Tennessee native finished the regular season ranked 155th in singles by the ITA.
No. 24 Florida will enter Thursday's match with a 13-12 overall record and a 5-7 record in conference play. The Gators dropped their last two matches to No. 5 Kentucky and No. 9 South Carolina.
Florida graduate student Axel Nefve, ranked 37th in singles, has played every match at the top of the singles lineup and holds a 20-13 overall record and is 7-5 in SEC matches this season. Nefve also plays on the Gators' top doubles team alongside partner Will Grant and have posted a 14-5 dual match record during the regular season. The Florida duo ended the regular season ranked fourth in the country.
Nefve and Grant have recorded 10 wins over ranked doubles teams and knocked off the then-top doubles team in the country, Connor Thomson and Toby Samuel of South Carolina, in their most recent match.
The match is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. CT at the Yarbrough Tennis Center. All-tournament ticket books for the SEC Championship are on sale at aubtix.com and daily tickets may be purchased on site. Kona Ice will be available for purchase on site from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. as well. Live video and live scoring will be available online at AuburnTigers.com.
The full tournament schedule and fan information is also available online at AuburnTigers.com.
No. 22 men’s tennis to begin SEC Championship run at home
