Auburn University Men's Tennis team swept away its competition and returned to The Plains with numerous victories after playing in the South Carolina Invitational last weekend.
The tournament was a three-day event with eight singles flights, a tournament where players play against each other in a range of matches and four doubles flights.
"Overall, I thought we played well in certain spots, I'm not disappointed," said Eric Shore, head coach of the men's tennis team. "I saw some bright spots and even some good things from a few of our newer guys."
Ranked No. 21 in the nation, junior Tim Puetz and sophomore Alex Stamchev joined forces and came away with eight singles and six doubles wins.
"We felt confident, we knew we could play well," Puetz said. "It was good to see that we got a lot better."
The pair defeated two top 10 doubles team in the country, No. 9 Diego Cubas and Ivan Machado of South Carolina (8-4) and No. 10 Austen Childs and Simon Childs of Louisville (9-8).
"It was interesting to match up against South Carolina because we knew some of their guys, and it was interesting to see where we stood against a SEC opponent," Shore said.
The duo defeated Andrew Crone and Alex Rafiee of North Carolina (8-3), taking the win for Flight 1.
"I'm pretty satisfied especially after the second match, it went into a tie breaker," Puetz said. "Alex played two doubles, and I am happy for him. Hopefully, we can keep it up and keep playing good."
Puetz, the 54th ranked player in the country, was also triumphant in the singles division. Puetz opened with a three-set win over No. 12 Austen Childs from Louisville (6-2, 4-6, 6-4) and finished Sunday with a 7-6 (3), 6-2 win over Jose Hernandez of North Carolina.
"The match where Tim Puetz matched up against a player from Louisville and his match up with Austen Childs from Louisville were good," Shore said. "It was good to see where he stood against highly ranked players."
Also bringing home the victories in the singles division were freshman Davis Taylor, who defeated Sumit - Prakash Gupta in three sets (4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (8)), junior Alex Jorne, who defeated Tim Barnoud 10-5 and Stamchev, who won two sets against No. 72 Simon Childs of Louisville (6-3, 6-4).
Freshman Michael Wardell and senior Nick Maurillo picked up two wins in the doubles division of the tournament.
The pair opened with an 8-2 loss to Viktor Maksumcuk and Andrew Carter of Louisville, but prevailed with an 8-6 win over Harry Menzies and Chris Sheehan of South Carolina and an 8-5 win over William Parker and Kyle Barker of North Carolina.
Maurillo and Wardell also walked away from the tournament with singles victories with Maurillo defeating Andrew Crone of North Carolina (6-2, 6-4) and Wardell defeated Chris Sheenan of South Carolina (6-2, 6-2).
Numerous players showed improvement at the tournament, Shore said.
"Nick Maurillo played better this week than he played in the fall and Alex Stamchev beat a ranked Louisville player Sunday," Shore said. "He lost three or four of his fall matches so it was good to see him get back on track."
Another success for the Tigers was sophomore Michel Monteiro and freshman Andreas Mies who attained a doubles win Saturday, defeating Ivan Cressoni and Johannes Pulsfort of South Carolina, 9-7.
Mies also beat Ivan Machado of South Carolina in three sets Saturday (5-7, 6-2, 7-5).
It was Mies' first tournament and his first win for Auburn, Shore said.
"Andreas played a good player from South Carolina," Shore said."It was a split set in the third set and he was down 5-2 and he rallied a 7-5 win."
Next for the Tigers is the Florida State Tournament in Tallahassee Saturday through Monday.
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