April 16, 2008

AUBURN - The Auburn men's tennis team begins post-season play this week as it heads to Fayetteville, Ark. for the SEC Tournament.

Play begins on Thursday as the seventh-seeded Tigers (10-11, 4-7 SEC) take on the No. 12 seed Kentucky (11-14, 3-8 SEC) at 10:30 a.m. CT.

The Wildcats finished their season ranked No. 43 in the nation and boast 11 regular-season wins, one of which was a 4-3 win over Auburn in Lexington, Ky.

"When a team plays at home it always has the advantage of having the home crowd," head coach Eric Shore said. "I would much rather play Kentucky in a neutral site instead of in Lexington."

Auburn lost to Kentucky in its first conference road match of the season. Auburn did not have much success this season when playing on an opponent's court, but the team did have a winning record (2-1) playing at neutral sites.

"I am looking forward to playing this week," Shore said. "We played well last Saturday at Alabama, and we are switching doubles up a little bit so I am excited to see how we match-up against Kentucky."

The winner of this match moves on to take on the No. 2 seed Ole Miss on Friday at 10:30 a.m.

Auburn finished the regular season with a 10-11 record, 4-7 in SEC play and enter the tournament ranked 30th in the nation.

During Shore's tenure as Auburn's head coach, the Tigers have gone 12-16 at the SEC Tournament, advancing to the semifinals in 1998 and 2002. Four of those tournament wins have come against Kentucky as Auburn downed the Wildcats in 1995, 1998, 2002 and 2007.

Live stats will be available on the Arkansas website at www.HogWired.com.