AUBURN, Ala. – No. 2 Auburn women’s tennis will continue conference play at home this week, facing Mississippi State on Thursday at 5 p.m. CT and rival Alabama on Saturday at noon CT. Both matches will be played at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn.
“We have two good teams this week that are battling in the middle of the pack in the SEC,” Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo said. “It’s going to be nice to be at home, and the weather looks like it’s going to be great. We took down Mississippi State last year, but they’ve had a good season. They’re right on the NCAA bubble right now and fighting for SEC Tournament seeding, so this is going to be a big match for them. Chris (Hooshyar) used to be Bobby (Reynolds)’s assistant for a long time, and I know he’ll be excited to be back here and compete.”
Auburn will enter Thursday’s matchup against the Bulldogs with a 24-2 overall record. The Tigers split a road trip last week, defeating No. 24 South Carolina 4-1 on Thursday and falling to top-ranked Georgia 4-0 on Saturday. Saturday’s loss was Auburn’s first in conference play this season, but its 8-1 SEC record still co-leads the league with Texas A&M. The Tigers have yet to lose a home match this season and are 15-0 at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
Auburn set a program record for its highest ITA National Team Ranking on Wednesday, moving to No. 2. The team surpassed its previous best of No. 3, set on March 10. Auburn also remained in the top spot in the UTR College Team Rankings released Wednesday.
Mississippi State is 15-6 overall this season and 3-6 in SEC play. The Bulldogs’ conference victories came against Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas. Mississippi State is No. 44 in the ITA National Team Rankings and has three ranked doubles teams, including No. 22 Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz and Gianna Oboniye. Auburn leads the all-time series against Mississippi State and has won each of the last five meetings.
“Alabama, in my opinion, is the biggest match of the year every year,” Szabo said. “We had a really tight match with them last year on the road. We’re going to come out fired up, and I love those rivalry matches. We will play into that and understand the significance of this match and how much this means to people at Auburn as well as our team.”
Alabama will enter the weekend 12-5 overall and 4-5 in conference play, with wins over Mississippi State, Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas. The Crimson Tide have played four road matches this season, splitting those contests. Alabama is ranked No. 38 in the ITA rankings and is coming off a home loss to No. 9 Oklahoma on Saturday. Auburn trails the series in the Iron Bowl of Tennis 26-33 and won last season’s matchup in Tuscaloosa 4-3 on a match-clinching victory from DJ Bennett.
Fans in attendance at Thursday’s match will receive vintage women’s tennis T-shirts while supplies last, and wooden egg painting will be available at Saturday’s match. More fan information is available at AuburnTigers.com/MatchDay. Live video and live scoring of both matches will be available at AuburnTigers.com.
Auburn in the rankings (ITA)
Singles:
38 – Ashton Bowers
43 – DJ Bennett
49 – Ava Esposito
94 – Angella Okutoyi
122 – Merna Refaat
Doubles:
16 – Ava Esposito/DJ Bennett