The United States Tennis Association hosted their annual On Campus Fall Invitational this weekend in Hilton Head Islands, S.C, and the Auburn University club team advanced to the championship match before falling to the defending champion Florida Gators 25-18 Sunday in the Palmetto Dunes Tennis Center.
After defeating N.C. State "A" in the tournament semifinals, Mitchell Vegas had the only set win for the Tigers in the final match.
Junior captain Christian Lyerly believes his team had an overall positive performance over the weekend and attributes their success to preparation.
"The competition was very tough, and we faced our biggest challenges against Georgia, N.C State, and Florida," Lyerly said, "We prepared by getting out on the court and practicing a lot. We played a warm-up tournament last month in Murfreesboro, Tennessee to get a feel for the competition and work on our team chemistry."
Auburn caught fire in the tournaments opening rounds and found a rhythm early.
"It felt great to be on such a roll," Lyerly said, "We won all of our pool matches handily and everyone was playing very well. We knew it would be tough, but we honestly believed that we had a good shot at the title."
The Tigers now look to carry the momentum into their next tournament, and Lyerly believes that the team will be ready next time they take the court.
"We're happy we made it to the finals but we hope to go one step further next time," Lyerly said. "We learned what we are good at and what we need to work on and we think we'll be ready to do our best in our next tournament. We look forward to continuing our run of success."
The USTA TOC program features more than 37,000 college students competing nationwide in intramural club play. The program gives college students the opportunity to compete on a college team without playing in a varsity program.
48 teams competed in the tournament. Alabama won the Silver Bracket, Ohio University won the Bronze, and Indiana University took home Copper.
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.
