The No. 21 Auburn men's tennis team is preparing this week to face South Carolina March 11 and No. 11 Florida March 13 in its Southeastern Conference home openers.
The Friday game against South Carolina will begin at 2 p.m., and the Sunday game against Florida starts at 1 p.m. at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn.
"We're fired up to play at home and try to get that first SEC win next weekend," said head coach Eric Shore.
Shore said he anticipates both South Carolina and Florida will be tough matches.
"We've just got to get a good week of practice and get ready for Friday," Shore said.
He said he plans to focus especially on individual technique and doubles in practice this week.
The team started its SEC play last weekend with two losses on the road to No. 13 Georgia and No. 2 Tennessee.
"We competed hard both days, Friday and Sunday, but I don't think we played that well on Friday," Shore said.
Auburn fell short to Georgia, 4-0, and Tennessee, 5-2.
However, Shore said the team showed a definite improvement in its performance against Tennessee.
"At the end of the weekend when it's all said and done I thought we got better," Shore said. "It's tough starting off with two of the best teams in the conference right off the bat on the road."
Freshman Daniel Cochrane said his first experience with SEC play gave him a small taste of a more hostile crowd, and he expects the matches to get more intense and difficult as the year progresses.
"I think the SEC away matches will be pretty fierce this year so I'm preparing myself for them," Cochrane said.
Sophomore Andreas Mies did not play against Georgia because of weather-related cancellations, but remains undefeated in singles for the season after his win at Tennessee.
"This year I'm just trying to focus more on the game and what happens in the game, not what happens before or after," Mies said.
Senior Tim Puetz said he's ready to get the SEC play underway in front of a home crowd after having a hard starting schedule on the road.
"Florida is always good," Puetz said. "They're about the same level as Georgia and Tennessee, so hopefully we'll do better and get a win against a good team like them, and South Carolina is struggling a little bit this year so we'd definitely like to beat them and get that win."
Cochrane said it is important for Auburn to continue to try and pick up wins since they are hard to come by.
"In the SEC there are no easy matches, but it would be quite good to pick up our first SEC win after a very tough start," Cochrane said. "Florida I know will be very tough...but we're playing at home this time so it should be a little bit better."
The team currently has an overall record of 7-5 and 0-2 in the SEC for the season.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
