The women's tennis team will head to Oxford, Miss., for the SEC tournament to face off against the Tennessee Volunteers in a first-round matchup. The opening round match is set for 6 p.m. Thursday.
The No. 63 Tigers (8-12, 3-7) enter the tournament as the ninth seed. The No. 22 Volunteers (13-10, 4-6) hold the eighth seed.
The matchup is the second meeting of the two teams this season. The Tigers fell to the Vols in a close, 4-3 match April 6. Tennessee defaulted two points to Auburn because of injury, yielding the third doubles point and the sixth singles point, but the Tigers were unable to capitalize.
"We made ourselves nervous," said sophomore Jackie Kasler. "We started up 1-0 and I think we put a little bit too much pressure on ourselves to win a match. Again, they are probably going to be injured and be down a couple of singles players, so we just need to focus on our own game and stay composed this time around."
Coach Lauren Meisner said the team looks to improve on their mistakes and lack of focus.
"The thing about that match was that we did it to ourselves," Meisner said. "We can control the outcome with our play; we just didn't come out with the right mindset or enough energy," Meisner said. "Any girl on this team would redo that match. We beat ourselves, which is good because we can control that."
The Tigers are coming off a narrow, 4-3 loss to Alabama, but the April 14 defeat revealed some positives that the team will look to build on going into the SEC Championships.
Junior Plamena Kurteva defeated her first ranked opponent of the season to break a five-match slump, sophomore Olivia Bennett continued her consistent play by winning in the singles sixth slot, and Jackie Kasler rallied back from a 6-2 first-set deficit to win in the fourth singles slot.
"Last weekend versus Alabama was a fun match for everybody because they gave it everything that they had," Meisner said. "We tried to stay positive and really go out there and not be scared, no matter what happened. We definitely got there to that point, a point to where we played smart and confident, physically and mentally, and that will help us on Thursday."
Freshman Jen Pfeifler said the key to their success in the tournament will be learning from their mistakes and coming out of the gates with a lot of energy.
"We can hang with these girls, I really believe that," Pfeifler said. "We are a strong team depth-wise and we know how they play. Once we get those points that we can get up on, we cannot play for comfort, but for excellence.
"We come out to win, not to lose."
The winner of the first-round matchup between Auburn and Tennessee will go on to face the No. 2 and top-seeded Florida Gators at 6 p.m. Friday.
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