The Auburn men’s tennis team, ranked No. 18, will begin a four-match road stretch with contests against No. 13 Vanderbilt on Friday and Kentucky on Sunday, according to a March 12 announcement from the university. The Tigers are set to play the Commodores at the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center in Nashville at 1 p.m. Central Time before heading to Lexington for a noon match at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex.
These upcoming matches are significant as Auburn looks to maintain its strong season performance away from home courts. Head coach Bobby Reynolds said, “We’ve done a great job over the years of protecting that home court advantage. We play really well at home and we just have to change our mindsets. We’re not going to have the home crowd behind us and we’re not going to have the comforts of home, so we have to be ready mentally and emotionally for some tough challenges.”
Reynolds also commented on their opponents: “Vandy is a very good team and coached very well. They are physical in the way that they play and they build points, so it’s not going to be easy. Then we’ll go to Kentucky where, if we play indoors, the courts are very fast and there are only four indoor courts. So just the flow of the match can be different.”
Auburn enters this stretch with a 13-2 overall record and is 3-1 in conference play after recent wins over Charlotte (6-1) and Alabama (4-0). These victories helped Auburn move up in national rankings—No. 18 in ITA national team rankings released Tuesday and No. 16 in UTR College Team Rankings released Wednesday.
Redshirt junior Nicholas Heng played a key role last weekend by winning two straight-set singles matches and clinching doubles points in both contests; his win over Matic Kriznik improved his dual match record this season to 9-3.
Vanderbilt holds a 12-4 overall record (4-2 SEC), having recently lost narrowly to Ole Miss after defeating several ranked teams including Texas A&M and Oklahoma. Auburn leads their all-time series with Vanderbilt 37-22, winning last year’s meeting thanks to Billy Blaydes’ straight-set victory.
Kentucky stands at 9-6 overall (2-3 SEC) with an impressive home record of 8-3; they recently defeated Michigan State, Duke, and Oklahoma—all ranked teams—and lead their all-time series against Auburn but lost last year’s matchup following Heng’s three-set singles win.
Live video streams for both matches will be available through VUCommodores.com on Friday and UKAthletics.com on Sunday.
