STARKVILLE, Miss. - No. 19 Auburn women's tennis opens the 2013 SEC Women's Tennis Championship hosted by Mississippi State on Thursday as the seventh seed in the tournament, and will face the No. 10 seed Arkansas at 2 p.m. CT at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.
"We are very excited and confident to be going to the SEC Championship," Auburn women's tennis head coach Lauren Longbotham Meisner said. "We had a good match against Arkansas last time and we feel like we match up very well with them. We are hoping to start the tournament with a good performance and to ride the wave from our good win against Tennessee."
Auburn (17-7, 7-6 SEC) defeated the Razorbacks 6-1 on March 10 at the Yarbrough Tennis Center. Arkansas is coming off a 4-2 road victory over Houston to close out the regular season with a record of 13-14, and 4-9 in SEC play.
The Tigers are coming off a 4-1 victory over No. 24 Tennessee. With the win, Auburn moved to 17-7 for the season and 7-6 in conference play.
It marks the first time the Tigers have won 17 matches since 2008. With seven wins in conference play, the Tigers finished with a winning SEC record for the first time since 2002. Seven league victories are the most conference wins for Auburn since recording an 8-3 record in 1993.
With one more victory overall, Auburn would have the fourth-highest win total in program history and the highest total since 1989 when it won 19 matches.
With her doubles win on Sunday against the Lady Vols, sophomore Jen Pfeifler is currently tied for the most doubles wins in a single season in school history with 29.
Freshman No. 23 Pleun Burgmans earned her 20th win of the season with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Tennessee's then-21st-ranked Brynn Boren at the top spot. The win improved Burgmans to 20-6 overall and 7-4 against ranked opponents.
Auburn is seeking its first win at the SEC Women's Tennis Championship since 2008 when it earned a 4-0 victory over South Carolina.
If the Tigers defeat Arkansas, they would move on to face the No. 2 seed Texas A&M on Friday, April 19 at 2 p.m. CT.
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