AUBURN, Ala. – No. 6 Auburn is set for a rematch against No. 2 Georgia in Athens on Friday at 3 p.m. CT and a battle against South Carolina in Columbia on Sunday at noon CT.
The Tigers will enter the weekend with a 12-1 overall record and winners of three straight matches. On Sunday, Auburn opened conference play with a 5-2 victory over Florida at home in a match that lasted nearly four hours. The win marked the fourth win over the Gators in program history.
During the win, Auburn claimed its ninth doubles point of the season before Angella Okutoyi, Alice Battesti, Ava Esposito and Merna Refaat earned singles victories. Okutoyi continued her dominance in singles, winning her tenth consecutive singles match to begin the spring by a 6-4, 6-1 score over Tailia Neilson-Gatenby.
Battesti came back from dropping her opening set and Esposito won a three-set thriller that included a break to love by the Auburn sophomore late in the final set that led to a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 win to clinch the team victory for the Tigers. Esposito is now 10-2 in dual matches this season and 18-9 overall in singles.
Auburn’s only blemish on its record this season was a 4-1 loss to Georgia at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship on Feb. 8. The last time the two met in the regular season, Auburn downed then-No. 4 Georgia by a 4-3 score at the Yarbrough Tennis Center on senior day in 2024.
“Georgia is probably the most historic place in college tennis as far as a venue,” said Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo. “It’s a special place to play and hard to have success there. We played Georgia a few weeks ago and we were right there with them so we’ve learned some stuff about them that we will implement but I expect them to have a great crowd. It’s a great opportunity for us to go test ourselves on the road in the SEC and play them this early in the season.”
Friday will likely be the third singles match between No. 1 Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia and No. 2 DJ Bennett of Auburn. Vidmanova won the first matchup in the NCAA Singles Championship finals 6-3, 6-3 in November and Bennett was two games away from defeating Vidmanova when the match was abandoned during the matchup on Feb. 8.
Auburn’s Sunday opponent, South Carolina, will enter the weekend with a 5-4 overall record and a national ranking of No. 53. The Gamecocks fell in their SEC opener on Sunday to Georgia by a 6-1 final score.
“We’ll have high energy on Friday’s match, then have to turn around and have high energy again on Sunday afternoon,” said Szabo. “South Carolina is a historically great program as well and Columbia is not an easy place to play. Their No. 1 player beat the No. 1 player in the country so they obviously have a lot of really good players so it will be a tough match. Every match is tough in the SEC and when you’re playing on the road you have to be a little bit tougher.”
South Carolina senior Sarah Hamner will enter the match with a 13-6 overall singles record and a 4-2 record at the No. 1 singles position. Hamner is the Gamecocks’ highest ranked singles player at No. 29 while Kaitlyn Carnicella is ranked No. 68.
Live video and scoring of Friday’s rivalry match will be available online at GeorgiaDogs.com while live video and live scoring of Sunday’s match against South Caroline will be available at GamecocksOnline.com.