No. 13 Men's Tennis Begins SEC Tournament Play Thursday
4/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 22, 2009
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The 13th-ranked men's tennis team (19-6, 7-4 SEC) will head back to Auburn tomorrow to compete in the 2009 SEC Men's Tennis Tournament. The Crimson Tide earned the No. 5 seed and will face the No. 12 seed and 57th-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores on Thursday, April 23 at 11:00 a.m. (CST).
"We need to be at our best and continue our momentum for our match with Vanderbilt," said head coach Billy Pate. "It will be a tough match and we need to be focused and ready to go. The key is for us to maintain the consistency that has got us to this point and continue building on that. As we have all season, we're looking at tomorrow's match with Vanderbilt as the most important match of the season to this point."
Alabama enters the tournament having won its final regular season match of the season, a 4-2 victory over the No. 18 Auburn Tigers. The Tide swept the doubles matches, and picked up three singles wins to claim the match. With the win, Alabama finished conference play with a 7-4 record, which was good enough for a second place finish in the SEC West.
Last season, the Tide lost its first round match in the SEC Tournament to South Carolina 4-3. Alabama did win its first round match the year before, defeating Auburn, but fell in the quarterfinals to Florida.
If the Tide defeats Vanderbilt, it will advance to face the No. 4 seed Florida. Earlier this season, Florida defeated Alabama 5-2 in Tuscaloosa.
All action of the 2009 SEC Men's Tennis Tournament will take place at the Yarbrough Tennis Center. For information and live scoring please click here or visit AuburnTigers.com.
