Auburn women’s tennis defeated Kentucky by a score of 4-0 at the Yarbrough Tennis Center on March 14, marking the team’s seventh consecutive Southeastern Conference victory to start conference play.
The win is significant as it keeps Auburn undefeated in SEC matches this season and extends their overall winning streak to ten. The Tigers have also maintained a perfect home record, going 15-0 at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
Head coach Jordan Szabo said after the match, “I thought it was a really good win and every win in the SEC is tough to get. I felt like we had nothing to lose, played really well in the doubles and started off really well on every court which is something I wanted to see. We put some different players in and mixed up the lineup in singles. At the end of the day, it was 4-0 and I think everyone was going to win their matches.”
Szabo added, “A lot of times when the players know that they’re playing to clinch the match, they start racing to finish and they jinx each other in a way. That’s a good learning experience for us because whether you win or lose your match, it’s about the team. I thought it was a good performance and a lot of the girls played really well, especially given the change in conditions from the match on Friday.”
In doubles play, Ekaterina Khairutdinova and Ashton Bowers led with a 6-0 victory after suffering their first loss of the season on Friday. DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito secured another doubles point for Auburn with five consecutive game wins after dropping their first service game. The Tigers have now won all 24 doubles points this season.
In singles competition, Bennett defeated Zoe Hammond 6-2, 6-3 on court one while Khairutdinova beat Julia Zhu 6-1, 6-4 on court two. Freshman Eva Ionescu clinched Auburn’s victory with a straight-set win over Donna Le Roux at position six.
With this result, Auburn improves its record to 23-1 overall and remains atop the SEC regular-season standings as the only team without a conference loss in 2026. Texas and Texas A&M are tied for second place with one loss each.
Looking ahead, Auburn will travel for matches against South Carolina on Thursday and No. 1 Georgia next Saturday.
