March 20, 2008
AUBURN, Ala. – Coming off its first open weekend of the spring, Vanderbilt’s 34th- ranked men’s tennis team will return to the courts after an 11-day layoff to play at No. 22 Auburn and host No. 23 Alabama this weekend.
The Commodores (9-4, 1-3 Southeastern Conference) will conclude their season-long four-match road swing on Friday at Auburn (8-6, 2-2 SEC) before returning home to host Alabama (13-5, 3-1 SEC) on Sunday. Vanderbilt and the Tigers will meet at 1:30 p.m. at the newly-constructed Yarbrough-Tennis Center. Sunday’s match against Alabama will begin at 1 p.m. and will be held at the Currey Tennis Center.
Vanderbilt is 1-2 on its current road swing and enters Friday’s match having lost two consecutive matches at Arkansas (4-3) and LSU (6-1). VU’s lone win in the SEC was a 4-3 decision against South Carolina on March 2.
Auburn opened the season with a 2-0 record in SEC play, but like Vanderbilt, the Tigers enter Friday’s match losers of two straight SEC matches. Auburn earned home wins over Arkansas (5-2) and LSU (4-3) before dropping matches at Ole Miss (4-1) and Mississippi State (4-3). The Tigers are coming off the Blue-Gray Classic in Montgomery, Ala., where the team posted a 2-1 mark, losing to Texas Tech (4-0) in the semifinals.
Individually, Auburn has two players ranked in the singles rankings. Alexey Tsyrenov is ranked No. 35 and Tim Puetz is ranked No. 114. Last season, the Commodores defeated Auburn, 5-2.
Alabama will host Kentucky on Friday before making the trek to Nashville for Sunday’s match. The Crimson Tide have won two of their last three matches after posting a 2-1 record at the Blue-Gray Classic in Montgomery, Ala., where Alabama defeated Oklahoma (4-0) and NC State (4-3), losing only to Penn State (4-3). In SEC play, Alabama started the year with three straight wins over LSU (5-2), Arkansas (4-3) and Mississippi State (4-0) before losing at Ole Mis (6-1).
The Crimson Tide have two players ranked in singles and one doubles team ranked. Saketh Myneni is ranked No. 85 and Mathieu Thibaudeau is ranked No. 88. In doubles play, Alabama’s team of Daniel Buikema and Thibaudeau is ranked No. 12. Last season, Vanderbilt was downed by Alabama, 4-3.
Individually, Vanderbilt is led by Evan Dufaux, who has a team-high nine singles victories in dual play. No. 75 Ryan Preston and No. 101 Vijay Paul have eight singles victories in dual play.