AUBURN, Ala. – After spending four of its first five conference matches on the road, No. 3 Auburn women’s tennis will return to the Yarbrough Tennis Center to host No. 11 Tennessee on Thursday and Kentucky on Saturday. The Tigers will face the Volunteers at 3 p.m. CT and the Wildcats at noon CT.
“Tennessee is a really good team and it’s going to be a really tough match,” Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo said. “They do a really good job of fighting hard and they made a Final Four in 2024 and the Elite Eight in 2025. They’re going to be gunning for us. We went up there and had a big win against them last year and they have a lot of the same girls. I feel like we’re a much better team than we were last year, but they’re going to really compete hard and they’re playing for the right reasons. If we can make it about the tennis and just play better tennis than them like I think we’re capable of, then we’ll be in good shape.”
Auburn enters Thursday’s match with a 21-1 overall record and a perfect 13-0 record at home. Auburn and Texas A&M are the only two teams that still have perfect SEC records this season, both at 5-0. The Tigers have won eight straight matches and have not surrendered a doubles point in any of their 22 matches to start the season.
Last week, Auburn shut out Ole Miss in Oxford 4-0, then had a statement upset victory over No. 4 LSU 4-2. The two victories helped propel the Tigers to No. 3 in the ITA national team rankings released Tuesday, which is the highest ITA ranking in program history. Auburn also remains in the top spot in the UTR College Team Rankings released Wednesday.
Tennessee will enter the Plains with an 8-2 overall record and a 4-1 mark in conference matches. The Volunteers collected two top-15 wins during the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in February, defeating No. 15 Virginia and No. 8 Oklahoma State.
On Friday, Oklahoma handed Tennessee its first conference loss of the season in Knoxville by a 4-3 score, then Tennessee defeated Arkansas 4-0 on Sunday. The Volunteers control the all-time series over the Tigers 39-15 and Auburn won last season’s meeting 4-2 on the road.
“Kentucky has started a little weaker in the SEC, but they’ve played a lot of really good teams,” continued Szabo. “But we’re going to have to bring it. There’s been a lot of carnage in the SEC already on the men’s side and the women’s side and lots of wins and losses that you don’t expect, so we’re going to have to bring our best.”
Kentucky currently holds an 8-6 overall record this season and has dropped each of its first five matches in conference play. The Wildcats will play Florida in Gainesville on Thursday before making the trip to Auburn on Saturday.
Fans in attendance on Thursday will receive a free “On Yarb Time” koozie while supplies last as part of Spring Break at Yarbrough. Saturday’s match will feature tennis bingo cards with sponsored prizes as well as a free kids clinic after the match with coaches and players. Attendance to all matches at the Yarbrough Tennis Center is free and more fan information is available at AuburnTigers.com/MatchDay.
Live video and scoring for both matches will be available at AuburnTigers.com.
Auburn in the rankings (ITA)
Singles:
27 – Ashton Bowers
31 – Ava Esposito
33 – DJ Bennett
91 – Angella Okutoyi
119 – Alice Battesti
Doubles:
14 – DJ Bennett/Ava Esposito
39 – Angella Okutoyi/Merna Refaat
79 – Ashton Bowers/DJ Bennett