Women's Tennis Hits The Road For Matches At South Carolina And Florida - AuburnTigers.com

Women's Tennis Hits The Road For Matches At South Carolina And Florida Tigers looking for first SEC win

March 10, 2011

AUBURN - After two tough loses last week against Georgia and Tennessee, the Tigers (2-10, 0-2 SEC) head to South Carolina (6-4, 0-2 SEC) to take on the No. 44 Gamecocks, then to Gainesville to face off against the top-ranked Gators (13-1, 2-0 SEC). This weekend will continue the Auburn women's tennis team's streak of playing only ranked opponents, now at three consecutive weeks.

"We've worked extremely hard this to prepare for these matches," said Auburn head coach Tim Gray. "We need some players to step up and really compete this weekend. Both Florida and South Carolina are very good teams, so we have nothing to lose."

Friday's match at South Carolina is set to begin at 1 p.m. CT, while Sunday's match at Florida will begin at 12 p.m. CT. Fans can follow the action with live scoring at AuburnTigers.com.

Previewing The Gamecocks
South Carolina, ranked 44th in the nation, is coming off three close road loses against Clemson, Arkansas and LSU. Anya Morgina, South Carolina's only ranked player, is ranked No. 65 in the country. In doubles, the Gamecocks have two ranked teams, No. 54 Dijana Stojic/Dominika Kanakova and No.56 Morgina/Kanakova.

Previewing The Gators
The Gators are No.1 in the ITA rankings for the second straight week with their only loss this season coming against then-No. 1 Stanford. Florida is coming off two big SEC wins last weekend against LSU and then No. 16 Arkansas. No. 7 Allie Will, No. 21 Joanna Mather, No. 26 Lauren Embree, No. 34 Olivia Janowicz, No. 35 Alex Cercone and No. 125 Carolina Hitimana are the ranked players for Florida in singles. In doubles Florida has three ranked teams in No.1 Sofie Oyen/Will, No. 58 Hitimana/Mather and No. 75 Embree/Mather.

Last Time Out
Auburn opened SEC play last weekend against No. 13 Georgia and No. 18 Tennessee at home. On Friday Auburn lost to Georgia, 7-0. Auburn fell to Tennessee, 6-1, on Sunday. In the Tennessee match, freshman Olivia Bennett defeated Tennessee's Rosalia Alda, who was ranked No. 103. It was the first ranked singles opponent an Auburn player has defeated this season.