AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn women's tennis team will face two big tests on the second weekend of the season when they compete in the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Atlanta.
The Tigers (4-0) will face No. 25 Kentucky (4-0) in non-conference play at noon CT Saturday at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex at Georgia Tech. The winner of that match will face the winner of No. 13 Georgia Tech (0-0) and Ohio State (0-0) on Sunday at noon CT.
The champion of the four-team event will advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, set for Feb. 8-11 in Seattle.
"Going up against another SEC team, there's the pride of wanting to beat them early on," Auburn head coach Lauren Spencer said. "Kentucky's a very talented team, they'll go neck-and-neck with us. They're a top-25 caliber team. They're always very good in doubles and they're a good indoor team. We just have to bring our confidence, our resiliency. We've got the talent to do it, we've just got to put that confidence out there on the court.
"We're in one of the hardest pods to get to Indoors. We know that. When they picked us, we knew it was going to be a challenge. If we make it to Indoors, we'll know we flat-out deserved to go."
Auburn won all four of its matches on the opening weekend, picking up a pair of wins over Mercer and one each over Alabama A&M and Central Arkansas. Freshman Yu Chen posted a perfect 4-0 singles record in her first collegiate competition, winning once each at the No. 3 and No. 4 spot and going 2-0 at No. 6. Senior Jaeda Daniel, ranked No. 61 nationally in singles, went 3-0 at the No. 1 spot on the weekend, losing just seven total games over six sets. Madeline Meredith, Taylor Russo and Caroline Turner all posted multiple wins over the weekend as well.
In doubles, the top two spots combined to go 7-0 on opening weekend. Russo and Sophia Graver, ranked No. 14 nationally, went 4-0 with three of those wins coming at the No. 1 position. Daniel and Meredith were 3-0 at the No. 2 doubles position.
Fans can follow live scoring at RamblinWreck.com and @AuburnWTennis on Twitter for updates throughout the weekend.
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