AUBURN, Ala. – No. 4 Auburn women’s tennis will play two ranked matches on the road this week against No. 24 South Carolina on Thursday and top-ranked Georgia on Saturday. The Tigers will face the Gamecocks at 4 p.m. CT Thursday at the Carolina Tennis Center in Columbia before facing the Bulldogs at 2 p.m. CT Saturday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens.
“We had a tough go of it on this trip last year and lost both of these matches,” said Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo. “We ended up being the No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament and if we would have won one of those matches, we likely would have been in the top eight. We’re calling it our revenge tour, especially after losing to Georgia earlier this year.
“South Carolina brings great energy, they play good doubles and it’s a tough place to play. We’ve played on the road a ton, so we should be used to all of that. Then obviously a huge match against Georgia on Saturday. It’s going to be great weather and I’m sure they’ll have a huge crowd. Hopefully, we’ll have everybody available to play against them and it should be a great college tennis match.”
Auburn has won 10 consecutive matches and has not surrendered a doubles point through all 24 matches this season. The Tigers lead the SEC regular-season standings as the only team with an undefeated record at 7-0. Texas and Texas A&M are tied for second place in the standings, each with a 6-1 record.
Last week, Auburn earned its sixth victory over a top-15 opponent with a home win against No. 11 Tennessee on Thursday behind a strong showing in the bottom of the singles lineup. On Saturday, the Tigers recorded a home shutout over Kentucky.
South Carolina will enter Thursday’s matchup with a 9-6 overall record and a 2-5 mark in SEC play. The Gamecocks reached No. 11 in the ITA rankings on March 4 but have dropped each of their last three matches on the road to Vanderbilt, No. 9 Texas and No. 5 Texas A&M. The Gamecocks lead the all-time series over Auburn 33-11, and the Tigers will look to avenge last season’s 4-2 road loss.
Saturday’s match in Athens will be a rematch of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship semifinal, where the Bulldogs came back to defeat the Tigers 4-3 and went on to claim the national title. Auburn has beaten Georgia 10 times in the all-time series and has defeated the No. 1 team in the nation once in program history — top-ranked Georgia in 2007.
The defending NCAA and SEC champion Bulldogs are 10-3 overall this season and 5-2 in conference play. On their Texas road trip last week, the team defeated No. 5 Texas A&M 5-2 on Thursday in College Station before falling to No. 9 Texas 4-1 on Saturday.
Live video and live scoring of Thursday’s match will be available at GamecocksOnline.com, while coverage of Saturday’s top-five matchup will be available at GeorgiaDogs.com.
Auburn in the Rankings (ITA)
Singles:
38 – Ashton Bowers
43 – DJ Bennett
49 – Ava Esposito
94 – Angella Okutoyi
112 – Merna Refaat
Doubles:
16 – Ava Esposito/DJ Bennett