NEW ORLEANS, La. – No. 15 Auburn suffered a 4-1 road loss on Sunday to No. 41 Tulane in New Orleans.
In doubles play, after Auburn dropped the first match on court two 6-4, the other two doubles matches were very close matches that were decided by tiebreakers. Auburn's Tyler Stice and Alejandro Moreno claimed court three by a 7-6 (3) score and Tulane claimed court one by a 7-6 (4) score to pick up the doubles point.
In singles, the Tigers suffered a couple of two-set losses to make the deficit 3-0. Will Nolan fell to Luc Hoeijmans 6-2, 6-3 on court four while Finn Murgett nearly missed forcing a third set but lost 6-2, 7-5.
Tyler Stice picked up his first win since the Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic by upsetting No. 80 Fynn Kuenkler 6-4, 7-5. The victory for Stice marks his 12th singles victory of the season and the eighth dual singles victory. With the score now 3-1, Auburn needed to win all three remaining matches to claim a team victory.
Raul Dobai forced a third set against Alex Bancila on court five and Alejandro Moreno was forced to go to a third set after his opponent, Billy Suarez, won a tiebreaker to claim the second set on court two.
Freshman Billy Blaydes dropped the first set in a long tiebreaker and was forced into another tiebreaker in the second set on court six. Rafael de Alba won the tiebreaker to claim the second set and the 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5) win as well as the team victory for Tulane. Both Moreno and Dobai's matches remained unfinished after the the Green Wave clinched the win.
Auburn will be back at home on Thursday for an SEC matchup with No. 6 Kentucky. That match will begin at 3 p.m. CT at the Yarbrough Tennis Center where admission is free. Live streaming video and live scoring of the match will be available at AuburnTigers.com.