The women's basketball team will face Duke Thursday at the Auburn Arena.
For some players, the ACC school represents a familiar rival.
Sophomore Morgan Toles recognized Duke senior Jasmine Thomas as a challenge.
"Jasmine Thomas--she's very talented, so if we can slow her down the same way we slowed down Courtney Ward (of Florida State) tonight," Toles said.
After losing a close match to Florida State Monday, there are a few points on which the players say they hope to improve before Thursday's game.
Senior Jordan Greenleaf said, "I think that one of our main focuses is being able to not give them second-chance shots and then being able to give ourselves second-chance shots, crashing the O(ffensive) boards, and just playing that lockdown defense, keeping them from pushing the ball, keeping them from getting transition points, and then using our equipment to get transition points."
Coach Nell Fortner said she is satisfied with her team's defensive play, but may want to work on the offense.
"I thought we just were warriors on the defensive end, no doubt," she said. "We've got to find a few more ways to score the ball and get a little more movement out there."
Fortner said she thought the team could learn a lot from its last game against Florida State.
"This is our second game of the season, and I would much rather play a game like this and see what, you know, what we really need to work on and where we need to go from here," Fortner said. "So, you know, we'll get better in the next two days and be ready to play on Thursday."
The Tigers lost by six points Monday, all of which Florida State earned in foul shots in the last 60 seconds of the match.
Fortner said she wants to make sure that doesn't happen again.
"We've got to do a much better job boxing out," she said. "We've got work to do keeping people on the boards and not fouling so they're not at the free-throw line."
Toles agreed the team has some work to do.
"Defensively, boxing out, and offensively, crashing the boards," she said.
Fortner acknowledged that her team faced a rough schedule early in the season, moving from Mercer to Florida State on to Duke.
However, she said she thought the challenge was good for the team.
"This is a very competitive bunch of players," Fortner said. "They don't want to go play anything less than this. This is what makes you better. Win or lose, it makes you better. We want to be an NCAA Tournament team and go deep into the tournament, and this is the only way you do that."
Auburn currently stands at 1-1 after winning its first game against Mercer and losing its second against Florida State.
Duke stands at 2-0, having won against BYU and Southern California.
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