The Many Recruitments of Ashton Bowers — or: How a blue-chipper’s long, winding journey to her dream school ‘all worked out for the best’
Signing with Auburn originally before being released from her NLI, Ashton Bowers is finally where she wanted to be in the beginning — and still undefeated for the Tigers in the SEC in singles.
Ashton Bowers had to tell her dad, right away.
She had just taken her recruiting visit to Auburn. A highly coveted, blue-chip prospect as rated by Tennis Recruiting Network, she had visits lined up with several powerhouse programs, but she left this one especially excited. She loved how Auburn felt like home. She loved the atmosphere. She loved that she’d be close to family. She’d seen the facilities, seen the campus, seen Toomer’s Corner and all of it. Obviously she would’ve wanted to tell her dad all about it.
In fact, there was something else she wanted to tell him:
“I had to go away for business the week after,” her father, Mark Bowers, remembers the conversation. “And when I got back she was supposed to go on another visit. And she goes, ‘Hey dad, I’d like to talk to you about it.’ And I’m like, ‘OK, alright, what’s up?’ And she goes, ‘I’ll go on any visit you want,’ but she goes, ‘I know where I want to go to college.’”
Her dad has always wanted her to do her due diligence. Mark was a Division III tennis player back in his own day, but even though tennis was his game he wanted both his kids to try other sports to find what they liked for themselves: Ashton and her brother, Illinois redshirt junior Tyler Bowers, both grew up in Bloomington, Ill., playing a little bit of everything — progressing to play on pretty competitive travel teams in soccer, and the same went for basketball. Ashton ran cross country, and track. It wasn’t until much later that both siblings gave up their other sports to exclusively pursue tennis.
The same way, Mark really wanted Ashton to be sure about her college decision — but, after just that one visit, he knew that she knew, the same way she knew that she knew.
“I could tell right away,” Mark said. “She was comfortable back then with DJ (Bennett), and back then with Angie (Okotuyi), and before them, Ariana (Arseneault) and whoever else was there. Even Ava (Esposito) was on her recruiting visit. And she just was comfy.”
So that was it. Auburn it would be.
She signed her letter of intent. Sealed and delivered.
It was a done deal.
Until it wasn’t.
Bowers ended up enrolled at Texas.
‘Everything happens for a reason’
Bennett sure is glad Bowers has since transferred to Auburn.
Fast forward to the present day: Bowers has been undefeated for Auburn in singles for the entire spring semester in 2026, including all through SEC play. The Tigers are 23-1 overall and sit in sole possession of first place in the SEC standings at 7-0 in the league. Auburn’s rocketed to No. 1 in the UTR rankings and No. 4 in the ITA rankings — and this weekend head into a road match Thursday at South Carolina before a showdown with the ITA’s No. 1 Georgia.
“As a sophomore, her first year at Auburn, she’s done insanely well,” said Bennett, the team’s senior leader, who first met the sophomore Bowers back when she was being recruited as a high school prospect.
“We’ve known each for a while, since she was 16 or so,” Bennett said. “I was sad to see that she had committed somewhere else, but, completely understandable. And I think everything happens for a reason and I’m glad that she’s back here, for sure.”
Bowers had signed her national letter of intent with Auburn in November 2023.
On Jan. 28, 2024, Auburn suddenly and unceremoniously fired then-coach Caroline Lilley under shrouded circumstances, amidst a successful season. An assistant coach resigned. One player stopped traveling with the team. Her firing spurred a former player of Lilley’s at Kansas to speak up on Facebook to say playing under her was a “horrible experience” and that players were “afraid” of her. The exact details of the circumstances of her termination have remained unpublished, but Auburn was left with a mess.
Bowers was released from her letter of intent on Jan. 30, 2024. A month later, on Feb. 29, 2024, she signed with Texas.
“You know, what happened wasn’t really in my hands,” Bowers says now, standing courtside after Auburn’s win last weekend against Kentucky. “And what happens, happens. I mean, we all had to deal with it and it’s OK. But I think going into the portal I knew that this was definitely the school at the top of my list.”
‘Third time’s the charm’
Jordan Szabo remembers trying hard to recruit Bowers when he was head coach at Texas A&M.
Then he remembers trying to do it again.