Auburn Men's Tennis team won the Wilson/ITA South Regional Saturday with perfect wins in two of the competitions.
"We had a great weekend, winning both the singles and doubles titles," said head coach Eric Shore.
The regionals were in New Orleans, starting Oct. 22 and ending Oct. 25.
The top athletes for the event were sophomore Alex Stamchev and junior Tim Puetz.
They finished with a 6-0 record in singles and 5-0 in doubles.
Auburn played against teams from around the nation including University of Alabama, Mississippi State University, Troy University and University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Puetz entered the tournament as the second-seeded singles player and defeated George Coupland of Mississippi State, with scores of 6-3 and 6-1.
Puetz and Stamchev defeated Benjamin Smith and Calvin Kemp of University of New Orleans, 8-5.
The Tiger tandem defeated the Alabama duo of Trey Walston and Houssam Yassin, 8-3, to close out the tournament.
Shore said he was proud of the team's performance and gave praise to both Stamchev and Puetz.
"Tim Puetz got better as the week went on and played his best in his final match," Shore said. "In doubles, Tim and Alex Stamchev got stronger as the weekend went on. With the wins, both will be able to compete at the ITA Indoor Championships and that is very exciting."
Shore said the team was determined to get stronger and learn how to play better for future matches.
"Our strategy was to just continue to work hard in practice and get better," Shore said. "We want to continue to improve through the fall season. Tim has gotten stronger physically, serving bigger and moving well. We want to continue to work hard off the court and its paying off for Tim."
The best highlight was the team winning both major titles of the competition, Shore said.
"We're going to focus on our next tournament coming up and get some of the other guys on the team playing better," Shore said. "Alex and Tim have been doing the job this fall and the other players need to step it up."
Puetz said he gained experience and insight from the competition.
"It went very well, and I don't think it could have gone any better for me personally," Puetz said. "It was great to play with Alex because he played very well. It was my first time seeing the other guys play in a tournament and so that was fun to watch them as well."
Puetz has a ritual he performs before matches.
"I try to eat properly before about two hours before the match," Puetz said. "I don't like to be hungry during the match and get a good warm-up. I got injured because I didn't warm up properly. I have to be focused on the court."
Puetz said he has been playing tennis since birth.
"I enjoy playing it and have been playing since I was a kid," Puetz said. "I just enjoy going out to practice and to continue to improve. It is just fun to me."
Like Puetz, Stamchev said he enjoyed the competition despite his performance in the singles.
"Both Tim and I played very well," Stamchev said. "It was only our second tournament playing together and to get the doubles title was really great for the both of us. In singles, I wasn't satisfied with my play and the loss really made me want to step up in doubles."
Auburn travels to Columbia, S.C., for the South Carolina Tournament Oct. 30.
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