The No. 24 Auburn men's tennis team remained undefeated with a 5-2 victory over South Alabama Friday afternoon outdoors at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn.
"I knew this would be a tough match mentally, coming off a great road win last season and our ranking this week," Auburn coach Bobby Reynolds said. "And playing outside takes a different mentality and this is our first match outdoors. We fought ourselves at times, making it tougher on ourselves with unforced errors and giving our opponents hope.
"We'll learn that with our Top 25 ranking, we have to be ready in every match from the start. We'll definitely be able to learn from this."
The Tigers continued to dominate in doubles. Jan Galka and Tyler Stice posted a 6-2 victory over Sebastien Collard and Maxime St-Hilaire, and then Raul Dobai and Maxwell Giddens clinched the doubles point with a 6-1 win over Martin Bugaj and Juan Accossatto. It was the sixth consecutive match that Auburn won the doubles point this spring.
In singles, Auburn went up 2-0 when Finn Murgett quickly defeated Martin Bugaj on court five by a 6-3, 6-0 score. After the Jaguars claimed a point with a win on court four, Tad Maclean made it 3-1 Tigers by winning a second-set tiebreaker 7-2 to capture his match 6-1, 7-6 over Louis Delcour on court three.
The SEC freshman of the week Will Nolan clinched the match for the Tigers on court six, defeating Javier Montoya 6-4, 7-6, taking his tiebreaker by a 7-2 count.
After the team match was clinched, Tyler Stice, who was down 1-5 in the second set, came back to capture a third-set tiebreaker 10-4 and win his match 7-6, 4-6, 1-0 over Sebastian Collard on court one.
Auburn is now 6-0 for the spring season and ranked in the Top 25 for the first time since the 2013 campaign. South Alabama is 6-2 this spring.
Sunday, Auburn faces Tulane (2-2) at noon and Alabama State (0-2) at 4 p.m. Free pizza is the giveaway for fans this weekend, while supplies last. All Auburn home tennis action is at the Yarbrough Tennis Center (1717 Richland Road, Auburn) and admission is free. Auburn has an indoor mask policy currently in effect campus-wide.
#24 Auburn 5, South Alabama 2
Singles
#95 Tyler Stice (AU) def. Sebastian Collard (USA) 7-6 (5), 4-6, 1-0 (10-4)
Jack Clements (USA) def. #84 Jan Galka (USA) 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-3
#85 Tad Maclean (AU) def. Louis Delcour (USA) 6-1, 7-6 (2)
Maxime St-Hilaire (USA) def. Raul Dobai (AU) 6-3, 6-2
Finn Murgett (AU) def. Martin Bugaj (USA) 6-3, 6-0
Will Nolan (AU) def. Javier Montoya (USA) 6-4, 7-6 (2)
Doubles
Murgett/Maclean (AU) v Clements/Delcour (USA) 2-3 uf
#44 Galka/Stice (AU) def. Collard/St-Hilaire (USA) 6-2
Dobai/Maxwell Giddens (AU) def. Bugaj/Juan Accossatto (USA) 6-1
Time of match: 2:53; Order of finish: Doubles: 2,3; Singles: 5,4,3,6,1,2; Official: Donna Jerome