Here’s what’s next for Auburn women’s tennis as it turns the page from its national championship run:

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Auburn all-sports schedule

All times Central

Tuesday, May 26

• Open

Wednesday, May 27

• 👟 Track and field at NCAA East Preliminaries

  • Place: Neutral (Lexington, Ky.)

  • Live results: FlashResults

  • Stream: ESPN+ (6 p.m.)

No rest for the weary.

Just three days after Auburn’s loss in the national championship final on Sunday in Athens, departing senior Angella Okutoyi was already out on the circuit, playing Wednesday in an International Tennis Federation W50 in Pelham.

At the same time, DJ Bennett was on her way to the airport to get to a wildcard qualifier in North Carolina to try to make it to a W250 in Memphis this summer. Inside the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn, Ekaterina Khairutdinova was back on the practice court taking swings, preparing for another upcoming tournament.

And next door, inside the coaches’ office, head coach Jordan Szabo was rubbing his eyes, getting ready for a visiting recruit and working through a chaotic part of the year, looking to finalize the roster and outlook for next season.

The transfer portal for women’s tennis remains open until June 2.

“I think everyone’s disappointed we didn’t win it all,” Szabo said. “But I think there’s a lot to be pleased with, and I think that the girls who are coming back are excited. The girls who obviously aren’t have already kind of moved on a little bit … They’re back on the horse.”

Those three seniors are Auburn’s graduating departures: Bennett, Khairutdinova and Okutoyi. One reserve from this past season is also in the portal so far. Auburn has signed two incoming freshmen, so far, with room to pick up another — and has an ace up the sleeve already signed and on campus and waiting to become NCAA-eligible starting next season.

Here’s a look at the outlook for 2026-27 for Auburn women’s tennis:

The captains for next season

Szabo shortly after the team got back from the NCAA Championships held his “exit interviews” with his players, setting expectations for the summer before they scattered home to get some needed rest.

He’s already named his captains for next year, as the team turns its focus toward 2026-27:

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Here’s a look at all four gymnasts Auburn signed on Tuesday:

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Auburn all-sports schedule

All times Central

Friday, May 22

• 🏌️‍♀️ Women’s golf at NCAA Championships

  • Place: Neutral (Carlsbad, Calif.)

  • Live scoring: Clippd

  • Stream: BabygrandeGolf.com

Saturday, May 23

• 🏌️‍♀️ Women’s golf at NCAA Championships

  • Place: Neutral (Carlsbad, Calif.)

  • Live scoring: Clippd

  • Stream: BabygrandeGolf.com

Sunday, May 24

• 🏌️‍♀️ Women’s golf at NCAA Championships

  • Place: Neutral (Carlsbad, Calif.)

  • Live scoring: Clippd

  • Stream: BabygrandeGolf.com

Here’s a look at all four gymnasts Auburn signed on Tuesday:

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Auburn all-sports schedule

All times Central

Thursday, May 21

• Open

Friday, May 22

• 🏌️‍♀️ Women’s golf at NCAA Championships

  • Place: Neutral (Carlsbad, Calif.)

  • Live scoring: Clippd

Saturday, May 23

• 🏌️‍♀️ Women’s golf at NCAA Championships

  • Place: Neutral (Carlsbad, Calif.)

  • Live scoring: Clippd

Sunday, May 24

• 🏌️‍♀️ Women’s golf at NCAA Championships

  • Place: Neutral (Carlsbad, Calif.)

  • Live scoring: Clippd

Here’s a look at all four gymnasts Auburn signed on Tuesday:

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Auburn all-sports schedule

All times Central

Wednesday, May 20

• 🏌️‍♂️ Auburn men’s golf in NCAA Regional

  • Place: Neutral (Athens, Ga.)

  • Live scoring: Clippd

• ⚾ Auburn baseball in SEC Tournament

  • Time: 8 p.m.

  • Place: Neutral (Hoover Met)

  • TV: SEC Network

Auburn’s new coaching staff has its first pickups.

Four gymnasts have been signed, including three out of the transfer portal.

The biggest splash comes by way of the signing of LSU transfer Molly Brinkman, who had a five-star rating as a prospect coming out of high school.

All four new signees will be eligible to contribute immediately in January 2027. In the group behind Brinkman, Auburn picked up a pair of power conference reserve ostensibly looking for a fresh start and a chance at more playing time, plus an international pickup as a late freshman signee.

Former Auburn freshman reserve Adriana Consoli was the only departure to enter the transfer portal, which closed May 13, but Auburn has taken its lumps on the recruiting trail in recent weeks, with most of Jeff Graba’s commits moving on after Auburn parted ways with him, leaving the staff room to round out the roster with these additions.

Here’s a look at each of Auburn’s new signees:

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Kayinsola Ajayi got his smile back.

Seen gnashing his teeth on the ESPN broadcast and putting a towel over his head in visible frustration Friday after making a major mistake in the 100-meter prelims, Ajayi less than 24 hours got his redemption — and got SEC gold after all.

Ajayi was inserted into the men’s 4x100 relay roster for Auburn in time for Saturday’s final, and the squad captured one of two golds and one of four medals overall for the Tigers at the SEC Championship meet.

Here’s a look at all four medal wins:

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Here’s the story on Auburn’s loss in the NCAA Tournament final:

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Auburn all-sports schedule

All times Central

Tuesday, May 19

• 🏌️‍♂️ Auburn men’s golf in NCAA Regional

  • Place: Neutral (Athens, Ga.)

  • Live scoring: Clippd

Here’s the story on Auburn’s loss in the NCAA Tournament final:

Subscriptions make the Auburn Torch possible! If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so with the button below:

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Auburn all-sports schedule

All times Central

Monday, May 18

• 🏌️‍♂️ Auburn men’s golf in NCAA Regional

  • Place: Neutral (Athens, Ga.)

  • Live scoring: Clippd

Tuesday, May 19

• 🏌️‍♂️ Auburn men’s golf in NCAA Regional

  • Place: Neutral (Athens, Ga.)

  • Live scoring: Clippd

The dream season for Auburn women’s tennis ended Sunday just short of a dream finish.

Auburn fell 4-1 to Texas A&M in the national championship match in Athens, ending its run in the NCAA Tournament final.

The season remains the greatest season of tennis ever played on the Plains: Auburn won a share of the SEC’s regular-season championship then outright won the SEC Tournament championship, which were both firsts in program history. In the NCAA Tournament, Auburn women’s tennis had never advanced past the Sweet Sixteen. The Tigers roared past that mark, and earned wins in both the Elite Eight and the Final Four on the way to Sunday’s championship match.

Texas A&M, winners of the 2024 national championship, reclaimed the crown with its win.

Auburn was in trouble early after losing the doubles point — which has only happened two other times this season. Auburn’s incredible doubles play helped power the Tigers’ run to its first-ever No. 1 ranking and through the postseason, but having dropped it against Texas A&M, the Tigers found themselves in an unusual position playing from behind.

In singles play, Auburn late in first sets didn’t trail on any court — but that’s when Texas A&M turned the match, winning three first sets close, including two tiebreakers and one 7-5 decision.

The deciding doubles match also went to a tiebreaker, which Texas A&M won. Ultimately, three sets went to tiebreaker and Texas A&M won all three of them, coming up clutch in crunch time and playing like a team that’s been on the national stage before.

Auburn fourth-year senior Angella Okutoyi won her match on Court 3 in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. Texas A&M won two singles matches in straight sets, and with 3-1 on the scoreboard, the remaining three matches went to a third. Auburn battled on all three, but Texas A&M’s Daria Smetannikov came back to defeat Ava Esposito 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 to clinch the match.

DJ Bennett was down a break on Court 1 to the nation’s No. 1-ranked player, Texas A&M’s Lucciana Perez, who finished her season with a perfect undefeated mark in singles. Bennett won the first set there, marking just the fourth time all season that Perez dropped a set.

Ekaterina Khairutdinova’s match on Court 2 was early in its third set when the match was clinched.

Auburn finished the year 37-4 on the season.

The Tigers were a perfect 22-0 at home. They re-wrote the program record books in just team’s second season under head coach Jordan Szabo — who was hired to be Auburn’s head coach two springs ago from his former post as assistant coach at Texas A&M.

Three seniors depart from Auburn’s most successful squad ever:

• Bennett, a fourth-year senior who battled the best on Court 1, and who grew up homegrown from SEC country in Florida and chose to stick with Auburn through a coaching change, to become captain of its first-ever SEC championship team;

• Okutoyi, Auburn’s other fourth-year senior and other leader, who led by example and entered the NCAA Tournament determined to leave a legacy for future Tigers to look up to and try to top;

• Khairutdinova, a transfer senior from FIU in her one and only season in Auburn, who made the absolute most of her one year at Auburn by making it to the collegiate season’s last match.

Auburn’s eight other players have eligibility remaining entering the 2026-2027 season.

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They chanted her name, as she did the honors.

Auburn sophomore Merna Refaat advanced Auburn’s name on the big bracket next to the tennis courts in Athens on Saturday night, as her teammates celebrated behind her.

“MER-NA! MER-NA! MER-NA!”

She stuck ‘AUBURN’ right in the middle of the bracket, all the way to the end of the line — into the national championship final.

It was a storybook moment, coming as the sun started to set over semifinal day at the NCAA Championships in Athens. Refaat a round earlier had been scratched from the lineup and benched for the quarterfinal match, in a strategic decision for the greater good of the team as Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo tried to put more favorable matchups on more courts against LSU.

Instead of sulking, Refaat roared back onto the courts Saturday in the semis against Ohio State, a consummate teammate — starting again and winning 6-1 alongside Angella Okutoyi in doubles before winning 6-4, 6-2 in the clinching match in singles on Court 4.

After kneeling down to place the Auburn sticker on the bracket, she spun around with a smile, and threw her arms in the air to celebrate with her teammates.

“It felt amazing clinching the win for the team,” Refaat said later, in the post-match press conference. “From the beginning of the match it was just, ‘Focus on the goal. Focus on getting the job done.’ And I think that’s what helped me the entire match — and also trusting teammates.”

Auburn downed Ohio State 4-1. The No. 2-seeded team in the NCAA Tournament, and the No. 1-ranked team in the ITA national rankings, Auburn closes its dream season at 6 p.m. Sunday against Texas A&M in the championship match.

“Merna coming in today and clinching the match after not playing yesterday — I think people doubt Merna sometimes and I don’t know why. … Merna’s a superstar. She’s going to be the leader of our team after this year. I knew she was going to come out and play a great match today,” Szabo said. “She’s a champion, and that’s why she’s in the position that she’s in.

“But she understands ‘team,’ too. No one was more happy yesterday than Merna Refaat that we won, even though she didn’t get to play singles. So she’s a champion, she’s a leader, she’s what college tennis is all about.”

Refaat won 67% of her second serve return points, surgically taking advantage of her opponent’s service faults by winning 14 of 21 opportunities against her opponent’s second serve. She fended off a whopping 10 break points from her opponent — who finished just 1-for-11 on break-point chances.

And the effort’s gotten Auburn to the title game.

“I think Jordan really put that in our heads that, no matter what we’re feeling, we’re playing for something bigger — for something bigger than what we feel in the moment,” Refaat said. “And just to find ways to bring it to Auburn.”

Here are more insights and highlights from Saturday’s big semifinal win over Ohio State:

Esposito’s serve comes up big

Auburn junior Ava Esposito picked up Auburn’s first win on the singles courts, winning 7-5, 6-0 on Court 6.

Esposito, the 5-foot-11 Southpaw from Connecticut, saw her big serve deliver success all through the match.

Esposito finished with a team-high four aces, which also tied the most from any Ohio State player, while Esposito also won a match-best 70% of her serve points while winning a whopping 82% of her first serve points — also the highest percentage of any player from either team in singles play.

College tennis 101

When a serve doesn’t land in bounds, it’s a fault. The player gets one more chance to get a serve in, but if they don’t, it’s a double fault and they forfeit the point.

A second serve is the serve the player delivers after the fault — usually more conservative and more returnable, as the server takes a little juice off the ball and gives it a less ambitious swing since they’ll have no additional chances after that to get it in. A first serve is usually the player’s best serve, hard and ambitious, since the player has some margin for error before getting a fault.

Esposito has split time on Court 6 this season with freshman Eva Ionescu. Esposito got the start from Szabo on Saturday — and she rewarded him in a big way with the straight-sets victory. She earned All-American status in the fall after making a run to the round of 16 in the NCAA’s singles tournament.

But it wasn’t just her serve that came up clutch for Esposito on Saturday. She closed her first set with her forehand, and by pressing her advantage as a lefty. In the set-winning rally, she fired forehands cross-court into the corner — and, as a left-handed player, her cross-court shots force back-hand returns from right-handed players. She sent Ohio State’s Alessia Cau into multiple times during the set-winning rally before putting it away with yet another cross-court winner.

Then — wouldn’t you know it? — she closed the second set using her backhand, making it an all-around performance for her on the day:

Read more

Auburn left no doubt — from the jump.

From the beginning of doubles point, and into the first sets in singles, the Tigers played like a team on a mission Saturday: a mission to be part of Sunday’s national championship match.

The Auburn women’s tennis team took down Ohio State 4-1 on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament’s national semifinal. Unlike in Friday’s Elite Eight match against LSU, which saw the Tigers start with tentativeness, Auburn was all over Ohio State from the start. Auburn crushed third-seeded Ohio State by multiple breaks in doubles on Courts 1 and 2, then in singles won the first set on four courts.

In the end, it was Merna Refaat who clinched it, roaring back into the lineup and defeating Ohio State’s Audrey Spencer 6-3, 6-2 on Court 4.

Refaat was benched Friday for the quarterfinal against LSU, as part of a strategic decision that Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo thought would give the Tigers a higher number of favorable matchups across the six courts. Playing like a consummate teammate, Refaat on Saturday got right back on the court and won in doubles 6-1 alongside Angella Okutoyi.

Their 6-1 win and the 6-3 win for Auburn by DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito sent the Tigers to singles with a 1-0 lead. Against LSU — in Auburn’s first match in program history at the NCAA Championship’s final site — Auburn lost the first set on five different courts and had to dig deep to turn the match around and win from come-from-behind fashion.

It was no such match on Saturday: It was Tigers on top, instead, with Auburn flexing its muscle and particularly its depth.

Ava Esposito won in straight sets on Court 6, winning 7-5, 6-0 — cruising with a bagel in the second set. Angella Okutoyi won in straight sets as well at 6-4, 6-3 — flinging her racket in celebration on Court 3 when her opponent’s last shot went wide.

Nearby on Court 4, Refaat had to hear the commotion — as she simultaneously served for her match. She held to 15, laying in a big serve on the winning match point, before putting down another strong forehand on the return, and it was one Ohio State couldn’t handle as the ball went long and Refaat jumped up and down.

Auburn had never gotten past the Sweet Sixteen before in its program history, but Sunday will play in the NCAA Tournament’s national championship final.

Auburn will play the winner of Saturday night’s semifinal between top-seeded Georgia and No. 4-seeded Texas A&M.

Auburn has history with both: Auburn lost to Georgia at the ITA National Indoors tournament on Feb. 9 in Illinois, and lost to UGA again back on March 21 in regular-season SEC play. Georgia had home-court advantage in that match. The Bulldogs would have home-court advantage again should they advance to the championship, as the NCAA Championships are being played in Athens, Ga., this year.

Texas A&M beat Auburn in the regular season April 2 in College Station, but Auburn was able to beat Texas A&M in the rematch on a neutral site in the SEC Tournament semifinals.

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It took just about every bit Auburn had on all six courts Friday to survive rival LSU on Friday in the Elite Eight.

It took a little bit from under the coach’s hat, too.

In a surprise move as Auburn and LSU moved to singles on Friday, Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo scratched usual starter and Court 4 regular Merna Refaat, in order to create favorable matchups for Auburn on Courts 4, 5 and 6.

The decision put freshman Eva Ionescu into the match off the bench — and allowed her to clinch the match with her victory on Court 6.

It was strategic decision and one that worked — but it was also a risky one, and there’s a lot more that goes into it than just a simple substitution, which it may seem to be on the surface.

Not only is the team’s No. 4 player pulled from the lineup, but the previous No. 5 now plays up a position against the opponent’s No. 4, and the same goes on Courts 5 and 6.

“I’ve got one thing on my computer and it says, ‘Trust your players,’ and, ‘Have faith in your players.’ They’re amazing players for a reason,” Szabo said in his post-match interview with ESPN+. “We wouldn’t have recruited them here. Just stepping up in the big moments when it matters — We’ve got a lot of options, for sure.”

Auburn needed three wins in singles after taking the doubles point, and got them.

The decision to shake up the lineup starts with Auburn’s history this season with LSU:

Read more

Slowly, but so surely, the monster started to stir.

The orange and blue machine began to churn to life.

Mounting an incredible comeback — improbable before it started but unstoppable once it began — the Auburn women’s tennis team topped LSU 4-1 on Friday in the NCAA Tournament’s quarterfinals in Athens, advancing to the Final Four play in the national semifinals on Saturday.

No. 2-seeded Auburn advances to face No. 3-seeded Ohio State at 3 p.m. Saturday, after Friday’s win for the record books. This was already Auburn’s first run to the Elite Eight in program history, and now this season marks the program’s first-ever trip to the Final Four.

“Amazing win for us and the program,” head coach Jordan Szabo said on the ESPN+ broadcast after the win.

Auburn got there by playing the same powerful tennis it’s played all year — once it got going.

Auburn lost five first sets at the start of singles play, and it outlook was dire for Auburn. Auburn needed wins in three singles matches to earn the team win — and didn’t have a lead on a single court at the time, losing five first sets with the sixth match going to tiebreaker.

College tennis 101

In singles play, matches are played on all six courts and decided in a best two out of three sets format.

Each singles win award a point toward the team tally, and the team to win the best four out of seven possible points wins.

That seventh point is decided in doubles play, during with matches are played on three courts and the school that wins two out of the three wins the doubles point.

But Ekaterina Khairutdinova won her tiebreaker. She raised her arms in that ‘pump up’ motion, trying to get the Auburn fans in Athens on their feet, and trying to spread that energy out to the other courts.

Then things slowly turned. The machine whirred into gear. Angella Okutoyi trailed 3-4 in the second set, then — just as she did against Duke in the Sweet 16 — she muscled her way to a comeback, winning four of the next five games to take the set, then winning the third set 6-4. Ava Esposito won her second set in a tiebreaker. Ashton Bowers won her second set in a 7-5 battle. In fact, just as Auburn lost five first sets, Auburn came back to win five second sets.

“I knew if we could just get a couple second sets on the board, we’d be really tough down the stretch,” Szabo said. “We train really hard and we do all the right things all the time to give ourselves a chance deep into third sets.”

It was Eva Ionescu who clinched it with her win over LSU’s Kinaa Graham, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5.

Ionescu clinched the match against the same opponent in the SEC Tournament final back on April 19.

“The fight was amazing,” Szabo said. “We try to have that street fighter mentality when our backs are against the wall. You know, as a coach, sometimes you wish you don’t get to that moment. But the character and the perseverance was incredible.

“We’re fired up. We’re pumped up. We’re playing for the right reasons,” he added later, in the post-match press conference shared by Auburn. “We’re doing it for Auburn.”

The spark — from a certain perspective — came from the most unlikeliest of places:

Khairutdinova turns momentum

Heading into Friday’s match, Khairutdinova was the only player in Auburn’s lineup who went 0-2 against LSU in previous matches this season, in the regular-season matchup in Baton Rouge and in the SEC Tournament final.

She was pitted against the same player who had beaten her twice this year: LSU’s Kayla Cross, the No. 21-ranked player in the ITA national rankings.

Cross in Baton Rouge beat her 6-4, 0-6, 6-0, and in the SEC Tournament final Cross won in straight sets 6-2, 7-6 (5).

It was going the same way early Friday: Just as Auburn was losing first sets on the five other courts, Cross led Khairutdinova 6-5 as Khairutdinova served and actually had two break-point and set-point opportunities. But Khairutdinova fought them off with a big backhand down the line to tie it 6-6:

Khairutdinova threw her hands and called for noise from the bleachers — trying to energize the Auburn supporters there, and, in turn, trying to spread that positive energy to other courts.

Khairutdinova won the tiebreaker 7-4, on the winning point digging up a return with an out-stretched stab — and Cross whiffed on her return, sending it wide in an error.

Khairutdinova would ultimately take full advantage of the gift. In the second set, Cross led 4-2 before Khairutdinova stormed back to win four straight games to win it, holding to 15, breaking on a deciding point, holding to 15 again, then braking to love to close out a remarkable win for the senior.

Khairutdinova — a transfer senior from FIU in her first and only season with the Tigers — made her mark on program history by sparking the turnaround, and by making her own personal turnaround against Cross by winning the match when it mattered most.

Okutoyi reverses it again

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The sensational Auburn Tigers have done it again. Unbelievably, and remarkably, Auburn women’s tennis came charging back Friday to advance to the Final Four.

Led by incredible comeback wins by Katya Khairutdinova, Angella Okutoyi and Eva Ionescu, Auburn advances to Saturday’s national semifinal against either Ohio State or Pepperdine at the NCAA Tournament’s final site in Athens, Ga.

Auburn beat LSU 4-1 Friday in a quarterfinal epic. The final team score won’t tell the full story. LSU came out hot in the doubles point, looking like a team that’s been there before, as it has — and Auburn, at times, looked like the team making its first-ever appearance in the Elite Eight, which it is. Auburn managed to fight off its heels to scrape the doubles point away from LSU, but singles play looked even more dire for Auburn.

LSU won the first set on five of the six singles courts. Okutoyi lost her first set 1-6. Ionescu lost her first set 4-6. Auburn lost on every other court until Khairutdinova went to a first-set tiebreaker — and survived it to win 7-6.

That was the start of the comeback, and from there, the mighty orange and blue machine began to churn to life.

Auburn, the NCAA Tournament’s No. 2 seed and the No. 1 team in the ITA’s national rankings, began to show the fight that got the Tigers to Athens. Khairutdinova closed her win in straight sets 7-6, 6-4. That clutch tiebreaker win proved huge.

And that was right about the time Okutoyi started to turn her match around. She trailed 0-2 in the second set and 2-3 later in the set, before roaring back to win three of the next four games then win the third set 6-4.

It was Ionescu who clinched it, the same way she did against LSU in the SEC Tournament final. Against the same opponent that she went to a third-set tiebreak battle with in that final, Ionescu came back from a 4-6 loss in the first set to drop a 6-0 bagel in the second set, then scratch out a 6-4 win in the third set.

Just as she did in Norman at the SEC Tournament final, Ionescu threw her arms in the air — and the Tigers rushed her and they all jumped for joy.

Auburn’s match Saturday is scheduled for a 3 p.m. Central start. Ohio State is the No. 3 seed and Pepperdine is the No. 11 seed.

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Here’s the story on Auburn track and field’s sprint team, and assistant coach Ken Harnden:

Subscriptions make the Auburn Torch possible! If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so with the button below:

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Auburn all-sports schedule

All times Central

Friday, May 15

• 🎾 Auburn women’s tennis vs. LSU in NCAA Tournament quarterfinals

  • Time: 9 a.m.

  • Place: Neutral (Athens, Ga.)

  • Stream: UGA court cams

  • Broadcast: ESPN+ (Individual court streams also on ESPN+)

• 👟 Track and field at SEC Championships

  • Place: Home (Hutsell-Rosen Track)

  • Decathlon

    • Time: 11 a.m.

    • Stream: SEC Network+

  • Heptathlon

    • Time: 11:45 a.m.

    • Stream: SEC Network+

  • Field Events

    • Time: 3:30 p.m.

    • Stream: SEC Network+

  • Running Events

    • Time: 5:15 p.m.

    • Stream: SEC Network+

• ⚾ Baseball vs. Georgia

  • Place: Home (Plainsman Park)

  • Time: 7 p.m.

  • TV: SEC Network

Saturday, May 16

• 👟 Track and field at SEC Championships

  • Place: Home (Hutsell-Rosen Track)

  • Field Events

    • Time: 1:30 p.m.

    • Stream: SEC Network+

  • Running Events

    • Time: 5:05 p.m.

    • Stream: SEC Network+

• 🎾 Auburn women’s tennis* vs. Ohio State/Pepperdine winner in NCAA Tournament semifinals

  • *if Auburn advances

  • Time: 3 p.m.

  • Place: Neutral (Athens, Ga.)

  • Stream: UGA court cams

  • Broadcast: ESPN+ (Individual court streams also on ESPN+)

Sunday, May 17

• 🎾 Auburn women’s tennis* in NCAA Tournament final

  • *if Auburn advances

  • Time: 6 p.m.

  • Place: Neutral (Athens, Ga.)

  • Stream: UGA court cams

  • Broadcast: ESPN+ (Individual court streams also on ESPN+)

Kayinsola Ajayi found the camera right after the race. He ripped off his bib, and turned it around to show off the message on the back: “IN KEN WE TRUST,” he had scrawled on it in permanent marker before the race.

That was at the SEC Indoor Championships at Texas A&M on Feb. 28. At that race, Auburn’s junior sprint star and former Olympian won the 60-meter sprint by tying the NCAA’s all-time record in the distance. In 6.45 seconds, he matched the NCAA’s record, matched the record for any African anywhere, and set a new national record for his home country of Nigeria.

He also won for Auburn the SEC 60-meter title for the third time in the last four years — all coming under assistant coach and sprint coach Ken Harnden, and coming after he joined Auburn’s coaching staff in 2022.

Two weeks later, at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Ajayi became the national champion with another 6.45 — and again, he revealed writing on the back of his bib, this time, two messages: “IT’S MINE” and “#IKWT,” again for “In Ken we trust.”

How did he know the championship would be his? He wrote the messages before the race. How did he know he’d win?

For Ajayi it’s simple: He’d already done all the preparation Harnden told him he needed to do to win the race, so, he already knew he’d win.

“We trust in him, like, ‘OK, if Coach Ken said do this, then if you do that, trust me, everything is going to work out good for you,’” Ajayi explained, back in March shortly after the SEC Indoor Championships. “If you trust in him and believe in him — then, yeah.

“If he tells me, ‘OK, Ajayi, do this,’ and then I do that, then everything is going to go perfect for me.”

Auburn’s season has since shifted outdoors, with the Tigers hosting the SEC Outdoor Championships starting Thursday at Hutsell-Rosen Track. Auburn may not throw everything it has at the SEC Championship, with a focus being on being rested and ready for the national championship meet in June — but who runs in what heats is all part of a particular plan, to get them ready for the national championships, and in the bigger picture continue to build some into their prime in time for the L.A. 2028 Olympics cycle.

The athletes have all bought into that plan.

There are different components to the process that have made it all work:

The clinical component

“My group for the last 25 years have created the peak in the weight room, not on the track,” Harnden explained.

A 6-foot-4 former Olympian from Zimbabwe, Harnden ran track for North Carolina before his coaching career brought him back stateside, and to the South. He coached at Florida State from 2003-15, then Georgia from 2015-18, then Tennessee from 2018 until he was hired by Leroy Burrell when he was assembling his staff at Auburn in 2022.

He sat and talked in an office during workouts in the old football indoor, while his athletes trained out on the turf and in the weight room attached.

“It’s a little more scientific in here,” he said.

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Here’s a column on Auburn women’s tennis and the current discourse around international players in college tennis:

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Auburn all-sports schedule

All times Central

Thursday, May 14

• 👟 Track and field at SEC Championships

  • Place: Home (Hutsell-Rosen Track)

  • Decathlon

    • Time: 11:30 a.m.

    • Stream: SEC Network+

  • Heptathlon

    • Time: Noon

    • Stream: SEC Network+

  • Field Events

    • Time: Noon

    • Stream: SEC Network+

  • Running Events

    • Time: 5:30 p.m.

    • Stream: SEC Network+

• ⚾ Baseball vs. Georgia

  • Place: Home (Plainsman Park)

  • Time: 7 p.m.

  • TV: SEC Network

Angella Okutoyi put together a strategic masterclass.

It was a sensational comeback: Down 1-4 in the second set with Auburn’s season hanging in the balance, Okutoyi completely reversed course in an all-timer for Auburn women’s tennis — lifting Auburn to its win last Friday in the Sweet Sixteen over Duke. She hit her spots, she swung with ambition, rising to the occasion instead of shying from the moment, and, perhaps most impressively of all, she adjusted — downloading her opponent, discovering a weakness, and attacking it.

Even though she dropped the first set and trailed well into the second, she found her advantage as the match wore on. A pro in the making, a fourth-year senior for the Tigers who this past offseason celebrated ITF circuit tournament wins in her hometown of Nairobi, Kenya, Okutoyi saw that her conditioning was holding up better than her opponent’s, and started elongating each point.

Each rally wasn’t just about winning that particular point. It was about the long game — about wearing down her opponent for the long haul. It was a pro’s mindset. “I feel like just changing my mindset to playing longer points, and just putting all the balls on the court, and making her work for the point, really changed the match,” she explained. Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo put it this way: “She’s really fit. She’s in great shape. She’s a professional. … Her opponent kinda started breaking down a little bit and Angie seized the moment, played the big points really well.”

She came back to win the second set 7-5, then won the third set with a bagel 6-0. Her victory clinched the match for Auburn 4-2, and lifted Auburn to its first Sweet Sixteen win in program history. Auburn makes its first-ever appearance at the final NCAA Championship site this Friday at 9 a.m. when Auburn rematches LSU in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.

Okutoyi punched the ticket. She pulled off the comeback. She did it.

And she did it not just for herself, but for Auburn.

“Auburn means a lot to me,” Okutoyi said, speaking a weekend earlier and standing on the outdoor courts at Yarbrough Tennis Center after Auburn’s second-round win over Miami. “I’ve been here four years and this is my last year, as you all know. So I really want to do good for the school.”

Read it again: “Auburn means a lot to me.” Her plan now is to give back — to again, act not just for herself, but for Auburn — by helping to lead her team to as good of a run as she can, in order to leave something for future Auburn women’s tennis players to build on, to look up, to strive for, to chase after and try to surpass.

“I just feel like we need a legacy, especially in tennis, at Auburn, because I feel like we never had people to look up to, especially from when I came here,” she said then. “I didn’t have someone to look up to from Auburn, like, ‘Oh they did this and that.’ So it would mean a lot if we left a legacy and if people coming after us would see that and want to do more. It would be like a motivation for them.”

Maybe Auburn could benefit from more players, in every sport, like Okutoyi, with her having that mentality and that mindset.

In any event, it’s jarring to hear those quotes, and to hear the way she talks about her school, and in the next moment to think there are people out there who are calling for there to be less people like Okutoyi in college tennis.

Some of those people are just grifting, but some of them are people with real vested interest in tennis. One of the latter is Patrick McEnroe, who has recently called for a cap in the NCAA on how many international players college tennis teams can have on their roster.

His call comes — however convenient the timing may be — after Arkansas announced it’s cutting its tennis program. Saint Louis, North Dakota and Illinois State all made the same announcement around the same time, following Gardner-Webb which had already announced this would be its last year of men’s and women’s tennis.

McEnroe argues that, anecdotally, he’s known parents who’ve stopped investing in tennis for their kids because they’ve been turned off by the idea that they could put a bunch of work in to become a college-level player just for their spot to be taken by a player from another country.

Ignoring the notion that the better player deserves the spot more anyway, McEnroe also hasn’t produced any evidence to suggest that youth tennis signups are down — or, most certainly, any evidence that suggests that any hypothetical downturn in youth tennis signups would be linked for any reason to the percentage of international players on college rosters. Does a white kid stop playing basketball because he’s watched the NBA?

Still, besides McEnroe, more neutral parties also tie that percentage of international players to programs being cut, however loosely. Money-follower Matt Brown of Extra Points listed to Whole Hog Sports a few reasons why tennis, of all sports, may be the most “endangered” to athletics departments looking to make cuts. To paraphrase:

1. The rosters are relatively small. Cutting the program doesn’t affect Title IX obligations or total athlete enrollment as much as cutting track or swimming, which have much larger rosters. Simple math also says you’re upsetting and disenfranchising a smaller number of former athletes by cutting the sport that has the smallest rosters and the smallest amount of alums.

2. There are a lot of international players in tennis. Schools may find that international alumni are less visible on campus, less engaged, and may give back less after moving back overseas. The fear is that when their college is out of their sight, it’s out of their mind. Anecdotally, there’s also some non-zero degree of sociopolitical pressure out there from individuals who’d rather see scholarships go to Americans or to local athletes, rather than on merit.

3. The best tennis players are skipping college and going pro. That brings less visibility to college tennis. In women’s basketball, for example, no one is skipping straight to the WNBA and players recently have found playing in college more lucrative.

Right there among his reasons is that high number of international players.

Make no mistake, and don’t over-think it: The reason sports are being cut at all indeed goes back to football — or, the investments made into football that turned sour and didn’t yield a return. If everyone was getting every dollar they spent on football back, they wouldn’t be cutting anything. It’d be the old way of doing things, plus a bonus. In the “traditional model” — which is what Arkansas called it in its announcement it was cutting tennis — tennis and Olympic sports were never intended to draw revenue. The teams are advertisements — and the return on investment came via enrollment and tuition. Do a significant number of kids enroll at Arkansas just to watch tennis? No. But does anyone buy a Ford truck because of one particular Ford truck commercial they watched? It’s about putting the brand name into the ether — and about being a university that has it all, and not just a university that has some of the stuff its competitors have. That’s still the whole point, “traditional model” or new, and the only difference now is that schools are allowed to spend even more on football than before, and so when they misspend without getting a return, they have to find that lost money elsewhere in the department.

But suppose it’s an inevitability that a sports team has to get cut, and suppose it’s only a matter of which one: A cap on the number of international players allowed might put a Band-Aid on bullet point No. 2 on the list above — but there would still be two other reasons why tennis would still be the most endangered sport in a given athletics department.

Even beyond that, Auburn’s players are proving that second point to be a flimsy reason already.

Auburn’s senior transfer Ekaterina Khairutdinova won her match 6-2, 6-1 against Duke, logging another point for Auburn on the singles court, and she said the win “means a lot” — but, again, not just because she wanted the win for herself, but because she wanted the win for Auburn:

“Unfortunately this is my last tournament as an Auburn Tiger, and I just want to do my best and give everything I have left for this team, for this program, for the coaches and for the girls obviously,” she said.

That doesn’t sound like the kind of player any team needs any less of.

In fact, it’s not the kind of player any sport needs any less of.

It’s not the kind of kid these universities need any less of.

Editor’s note from Justin

I haven’t asked any players or Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo about Arkansas cutting tennis or about McEnroe’s proposal. It doesn’t seem appropriate or a good use of interview time in the midst of a team’s tournament run. It’s more a topic for the offseason. The appreciation Okutoyi and Khairutdinova showed for Auburn came up outside of that context.

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Here’s the statistical dive into Auburn women’s tennis:

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Auburn all-sports schedule

All times Central

Wednesday, May 13

• 🏌️‍♀️ Women’s golf at NCAA Regional

  • Place: Away (Louisville, Ky.)

  • Stream: BabyGrandeGolf.com

  • Live scoring: Clippd