The Auburn equestrian team's recent victories have given its coach a renewed confidence about the upcoming season, and that's straight from the horse's mouth.
After a 14-4 win against Kansas State Thursday and a 15-4 win over South Dakota State Friday, coach Greg Williams said he feels more confident about the remaining meets.
"We're excited about this," Williams said. "You just don't know till you get playing. We hope we're good, but tonight we look like we're going to be really good."
Williams said the women on the team never cease to amaze him with their work ethic, which they displayed throughout the meet against Kansas State.
"Our strength was their desire to win," Williams said.
It's a strength Williams said Auburn is going to need in its upcoming meet against South Carolina.
"Because it's an SEC meet, we've got to increase our intensity," Williams said. "South Carolina's desire to win is going to be something that a lot of the young ones have never seen before."
South Carolina opened its season with wins against Southern Methodist University, 8-4, and South Dakota State, 12-7.
Kimberly McCormack will be the South Carolina rider to watch.
McCormack won both hunter seat MVP awards in the meet against SMU, had 15 total wins last season and won one MVP in equitation on the flat and two in equitation over fences.
Auburn's Maggie Fortune, junior, earned seven wins and three MVPs in horsemanship last season and two MVPs during the 2008-2009 season.
Junior Taylor Singmaster won an MVP in horsemanship against South Dakota. Singmaster had four wins in horsemanship during the 2009-2010 season and two MVP awards.
Indy Roper, sophomore on the western team, said she is excited about the upcoming season.
"We have a solid group of girls," Roper said. "We have great chemistry. It's just going to be a really fun year."
Acknowledging the rivalry between Auburn and South Carolina as SEC teams, Roper pointed out South Carolina beat Auburn's western team at nationals last year.
"Hopefully our western team can go in there and try and get some revenge," Roper said.
Sophomore hunt seat rider Lindsay Portela was named MVP of equitation at the Kansas State meet.
"The freshmen were really good," Portela said. "I think everybody's really together, and we were really united this first meet, which is really big."
Portela said she thinks the way the team handled itself is an encouraging preview of its future this season.
"It's going to be the best against the best," Portela said.
Portela said the team needs to buckle down to prepare for the meet against South Carolina .
"I think we just need to work on getting stronger as a whole unit and not just letting one person get stronger and the other people stay the same," Portela said. "I think we just need to keep pushing each other to do our best every time we go out there. We're just going to have to go in there strong and start beating them from the beginning."
Though he remains positive, Williams also remains realistic about the difficulty in facing conference teams like South Carolina.
"The SEC meets always get really tough," Williams said. "I mean, it doesn't matter if you're having kind of a rebuilding year or you're kind of at the top of your game: when two SEC schools play, it's anybody's game."
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