AUBURN, Ala. – The No. 5 Auburn women’s tennis team will hit the road this week to face Ole Miss on Thursday in Oxford before taking on No. 4 LSU on Saturday in Baton Rouge. Thursday’s match at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center is set for 4 p.m. CT, while Saturday’s contest at the LSU Tennis Complex will begin at noon CT.
“Ole Miss took a couple of tough road losses last weekend, but playing on the road in the SEC is never easy,” Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo said. “They beat LSU this year. LSU is missing a couple of girls, but they’re capable. I think if we can play to our level, we should feel good.
“And the LSU match is a huge match. They have three or four professional players on their team that are very highly ranked players. We’re going to go out and play a really good match against them. It’s showing a chance of rain, but they have a nice indoor facility there if it does, so we’ll be ready to go. We’re going to have to play our best match of the year down there, I think.”
Auburn enters Thursday’s match riding a six-match winning streak, including victories in all three of its conference matchups so far over Florida, No. 11 Oklahoma and Arkansas. The Tigers are 19-1 overall and a perfect 5-0 in road matches. The Ole Miss and LSU contests will mark the team’s third and fourth road SEC matches of the season, respectively. Auburn made a major jump in the ITA National Team Rankings released Tuesday, moving from No. 13 to No. 5. The Tigers remained in the No. 1 spot in the UTR College Team Rankings released Wednesday.
Senior Angella Okutoyi helped Auburn maintain its perfect SEC record this past weekend, earning two singles wins against Oklahoma and Arkansas as well as a doubles point–clinching victory against the Sooners. Okutoyi recorded a 6-2, 6-3 win over Oklahoma’s Edda Mamedova on Thursday, then dominated Arkansas’ Anet Koskel to give Auburn its first singles point against the Razorbacks. The reliable senior holds a 9-2 dual match singles record and a 12-1 dual match doubles record this season.
Ole Miss, ranked No. 30 in the ITA National Team Rankings, enters Thursday with a 6-3 overall record and a 1-2 mark in SEC play. The Rebels upset No. 4 LSU on Feb. 22 at home to open conference action, then dropped their next two away matches to No. 1 Georgia and No. 17 South Carolina. Emily Welker, ranked No. 12 nationally in singles by the ITA, anchors the top of the Ole Miss singles lineup and holds an 18-2 overall record, including 7-1 in dual matches.
LSU holds an 8-3 overall record and is 1-2 in SEC play. The Tigers earned a spot in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship this season, where they defeated No. 14 Tennessee and No. 9 NC State and fell to No. 1 Georgia in the quarterfinals. After losing to Ole Miss in the SEC opener, LSU beat No. 17 South Carolina 4-1 on the road and was then shut out 4-0 by Georgia in Athens. LSU has four players ranked in ITA singles and three ranked doubles teams, including the No. 9 duo of Ella McDonald and Kayla Cross.
Live video and live scoring for Thursday’s match at Ole Miss will be available at OleMissSports.com, while coverage of Saturday’s top-five matchup at LSU can be found at LSUSports.net.
Auburn in the rankings (ITA)
Singles:
27 – Ashton Bowers
31 – Ava Esposito
33 – DJ Bennett
91 – Angella Okutoyi
119 – Alice Battesti
Doubles:
14 – Ava Esposito/DJ Bennett
39 – Angella Okutoyi/Merna Refaat
79 – Ashton Bowers/DJ Bennett