AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn's Carolyn Ansari and DJ Bennett will be in the 64-player field for the NCAA Singles Championship while Bennett and Ariana Arseneault will take part in the NCAA Doubles Championship this week at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The singles championship includes 64 players and will be six rounds with the singles national champion being decided on Saturday. The doubles championship includes 32 teams and will be five rounds. All matches will be best-of-three sets. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
"Carolyn [Ansari] has a great chance of doing a lot of damage in this tournament," Auburn interim head coach Lester Cook said about the singles championship. "She's been top-10 most of the year and she can beat anybody on any day. DJ Bennett needs to be mentally prepared to play singles and doubles this week."
Ansari is scheduled to face Oklahoma's Florencia Urrutia at 9 a.m. CT in the round of 64 while Bennett will play Janice Tjen of Pepperdine at 4 p.m. CT in the opening round.
Ansari, who was named first-team All-SEC this season, played every match at the top of the Tigers' singles lineup this season and accumulated a 15-8 dual match record and a 7-4 record against SEC opponents. The Greensboro, North Carolina native earned 13 singles wins over ranked opponents including No. 13 Lisa Zarr of Pepperdine and No. 17 Celia-Belle Mohr of Vanderbilt.
The ninth-ranked singles player in the nation picked up two wins including the highest ranked win of her career, a 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3 win over fifth-ranked Alexa Noel, to make the round of 16 in last season's NCAA Singles Championship, which automatically earned her ITA Singles All-American honors.
Monday will mark Bennett's first appearance in the singles championship. This season, the sophomore posted a team-best 29 singles victories in 2024 to pick up second-team All-SEC honors. Playing mostly at No. 3 in the Auburn singles lineup before being moved up to No. 2 later in the season, Bennett had a 19-6 dual singles record and a 11-2 mark against SEC opponents.
"DJ [Bennett] and Ariana [Arseneault] have amazing chemistry on the court, so they have a great shot of taking the title," continued Cook. "We'll take it one match at a time."
Arseneault and Bennett are scheduled to battle Tian Fangran and Elise Wagle of UCLA in Tuesday's first round at a time that is still to be determined.
Arseneault and Bennett have recorded a 12-3 record and a 7-1 record against conference opponents. The duo defeated five ranked opponents and achieved an ITA doubles ranking of ninth in the nation on April 16. The pair currently have a ranking of 15th.
This will be Arseneault's fourth time participating in the NCAA Doubles Championship and Bennett's first appearance.
Three tigers to participate in NCAA Women’s Singles & Doubles Championships
