AUBURN, Ala. – No. 11 Women’s tennis will face both Texas schools in the Southeastern Conference over the weekend at the Yarbrough Tennis Center. Auburn will host defending national champion No. 3 Texas A&M on Friday at 5 p.m. CT before facing No. 9 Texas on Sunday at noon CT.
“We’re playing two huge teams this weekend,” said Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo. “Three of the last four national championships have been won by Texas A&M or Texas. Out of the last eight schools that we’ve played, seven of them have made national championship matches in the last ten years so almost every team that we have played have been historically good teams and that’s what we want to get to. We’ve been able to win most of those matches so hopefully we’ll get back to it this weekend.”
Auburn will enter Friday evening’s match with a 12-3 overall record and a 1-2 record in SEC play. The Tigers will face their sixth and seventh team ranked inside the ITA top 10 this season, as they already have three on their record over No. 3 Oklahoma State, No. 4 Stanford and No. 8 North Carolina.
Junior DJ Bennett bounced back from a loss to the top-ranked singles player in the nation on Friday by defeating No. 29 Sarah Hamner of South Carolina by a 6-1, 7-6 (3) score on Sunday. The Auburn junior is 18-6 in singles overall this season and 6-2 in dual matches.
Bennett and doubles partner Ava Hrastar looked impressive in their doubles match against Hamner and Kaitlyn Carnicella of South Carolina on Sunday. The Auburn duo broke to love early in the match to take a 2-1 lead and went on to win 6-2 to earn a win that clinched the doubles point for the Tigers. The pair now have an overall doubles record of 15-8 and a dual match record of 6-5 this season.
Texas A&M has posted a 12-1 record since winning the 2024 NCAA National Championship in May. The Aggies are one of four teams in the SEC that are still undefeated in conference play at 3-0. Their one loss occurred in the finals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship to Georgia in February and the team has defeated then-No. 11 Texas, Arkansas and No. 12 Oklahoma since the loss.
Notable returners for the Aggies include Mary Stoiana, Nicole Khirin and Mia Kupres. Stoiana, the third-ranked singles player in the nation, holds a 6-1 record at the No. 1 singles position this season and a 14-3 overall singles record. Khirin, ranked No. 15 in singles, is 22-4 overall this season and is 10-1 in dual matches.
Texas, winner of the NCAA national title in 2021 and 2022, will enter the weekend with an 8-4 record and 2-1 in SEC matches this season. After losing to Texas A&M in their first SEC match of the season, the Longhorns bounced back with wins over Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Sabina Zeynalova is regularly at the top of Texas’ singles lineup and is ranked No. 38 with a 5-2 record in dual matches. Ashton Bowers and Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo, the No. 29 doubles team in the country, have posted an overall record of 5-1 in dual matches this season and have won four consecutive.
Attendance to both matches at the Yarbrough Tennis Center will be free. The first 50 fans in attendance at either match will receive an Auburn Tennis themed cowboy hat while supplies last. Live video and live scoring of each match will be available online at AuburnTigers.com.