Friday, 02/08/2013

AUBURN - The 22nd-ranked Auburn men's tennis team will continue a five-match road swing this weekend with two matches in Fresno, Calif. The Tigers will face No. 66 San Diego State at 3 p.m. (CT) Saturday before taking on Fresno State at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Wathen Tennis Center.

Auburn (5-1) is coming off a 6-1 win at UAB last Sunday and are continuing to fine-tune their games in preparation for the Southeastern Conference season, which is just three weeks away.

Doubles play continues to be the strength of the Tigers as Auburn has yet to lose the doubles point this season. The nation's No. 2-ranked tandem of senior Andreas Mies and junior Daniel Cochrane are unbeaten through six matches in the dual season and 13-1 overall in 2012-13. They have received plenty of help from the rest of the doubles lineup - Dennis Lengsfeld and Lucas Lopasso are 5-1 at the second spot, and Lukas Ollert and Joseph Van Dooren are 4-1 at the third position.

In singles, Ollert leads the way from the No. 3 position with a perfect 6-0 mark so far this year, and senior Michael Wardell is 4-0 in singles at the Nos. 5 and 6 spots. Lopasso, Mies, Cochrane and Lengsfeld have also been strong as each has just one loss so far.

San Diego State (3-2) enters the weekend at No. 66 in the latest ITA rankings. The Aztecs have wins over UC San Diego, UC Riverside and Georgia Tech, but dropped two contests to No. 2 Southern Cal and No. 57 Cal Poly. The Aztecs will face the Bulldogs Friday before playing Auburn on Saturday.

Fresno State (2-5) has struggled in the early part of the season but has faced stiff competition, playing a very similar schedule to SDSU. The Bulldogs earned wins over UC Riverside and Georgia Tech, and, like the Aztecs, dropped decisions to Cal Poly and USC. Fresno State also fell to St. Mary's, UC Irvine and No. 3 UCLA.

Live scoring will be available at GoBulldogs.com, and @MensTennisAU on Twitter will have occasional updates throughout the weekend.