RALEIGH, N.C. – No. 18 Auburn will play in a NCAA Round of 16 match for the second consecutive season and for the fourth time in program history on Saturday in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Tigers will face fourth ranked NC State at 11 a.m. CT at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.
Auburn enters Saturday's match with a 20-8 overall record and coming off back-to-back dramatic wins over No. 36 FIU and No. 15 Miami in the Coral Gables Regional to make it to the super regional round.
Freshman DJ Bennett has won nine consecutive singles matches for the Tigers, including the match clinching victory in the NCAA First Round over FIU. Bennett holds an 18-7 dual match record featuring five ranked singles victories this season.
Junior Adeline Flach, who was named CSC Academic All-District on Tuesday, won both of her singles matches during the first and second rounds including the match clinching point against Miami. Flach has a 13-11 dual singles record this season.
The top Auburn doubles team of Ariana Arseneault and Carolyn Ansari picked up two ranked doubles victories during the weekend over the 83rd ranked doubles team of Ekaterina Khairutdinova and Kamila Umarova from FIU as well as No. 51 Daevenia Achong and Maya Tahan from Miami. The Auburn duo holds an 18-14 overall doubles record this season and will participate in the NCAA doubles competition in Orlando later this month.
NC State will enter the match with a 25-4 overall record and won the Raleigh Regional with 4-0 shutouts of South Carolina State and No. 25 Kansas. The Wolfpack also won the ACC Women's Tennis Championship for the first time in program history and defeated top-ranked North Carolina in the finals by a 4-1 score.
NC State freshman Diana Shnaider, who has played all of her matches at the top of the singles lineup, holds the highest singles ranking on the team at 7th and has a 16-3 dual singles record this season. Graduate student Alana Smith, who is ranked 13th in the country in singles, has also had an impressive season on the singles court with a 24-6 overall singles record.
Shnaider and Smith regularly play at the top of the Wolfpack doubles lineup and have a 12-2 dual doubles record this season. The NC State duo is currently ranked 4th in the nation.
The match is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. CT at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center's outdoor courts. Links for live video and live scoring of the match will be available online at AuburnTigers.com and gopack.com.
