Auburn tennis will be heading to the Country Club of Birmingham tomorrow to compete at the CCB Collegiate Invitational. The event begins on October 24th at 12:00 PM and will give the Tigers another opportunity to build on the progress they have made this season.
Auburn is coming off a solid showing at the ITA Southern Regional Championship in Tuscaloosa, where several players delivered strong performances in both doubles and singles play. Joey Phillips and Nicholas Heng headline the doubles field after advancing to the semifinals after opening with an 8-4 win against UAB. The duo continued with two more wins on Sunday, a tiebreaker win and an 8-6 win before falling to Ole Miss.
Other duos to look out for are Billy and Freddy Blaydes, who reached round 16 with a win over Tulane, and Jake Kennedy and Hamza Nasridinov, who advanced to the same stage after two victories.
In Singles play, Billy Blaydes and Nasridinov both reached the quarterfinals of the main draw. Blaydes picked up wins against Mississippi State, Tulane, and Alabama, while Nasridinov claimed straight-set victories against players from Troy, South Alabama, and Mississippi State. Thomas Kennedy is another name to watch out for; last time, he secured a spot in the main draw with wins over Louisiana and Samford.
“Disappointing not to get some of the guys through to the NCAA Tournament with this regional,” head coach Bobby Reynolds said. “I felt like we gave ourselves a good chance with two guys in the quarterfinals of singles and a team in the doubles semifinals. It allows us to move on to sectionals and give ourselves another chance in a few weeks. In the next couple of weeks of practice and even tournaments, we’ll continue to focus on being aggressive, playing with trust, and trying to win matches when the opportunity presents itself.”
Reynolds added that the Tigers are working on bringing more initiative into their play. At times, we’re still trying to feel our way into matches and hope for unforced errors rather than taking the match by the hand and going after it. We’ll continue to work on more aggressive tennis and look forward to another opportunity at sectionals.”
With so many players carrying momentum from Tuscaloosa, Auburn looks to be a competitive opponent at the CCB Collegiate Invitational.
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