AU ROUNDUP: Soccer visits South Carolina, Florida

The Auburn soccer team will face another daunting challenge this weekend as it hits the road for a pair of matches against top-15 teams.

Auburn opens the weekend at No. 7 South Carolina at 6 p.m. tonight and then heads to No. 14 Florida for a noon match on Sunday.

The match on Sunday will air live on Sun Sports.

“South Carolina and Florida are two of the best teams in the SEC right now,” Auburn head coach Karen Hoppa said. “They are two difficult teams to play and playing them on the road will present a big challenge for us.”

Auburn is 5-4-3, 2-2-0 SEC after splitting its weekend with Arkansas (W, 2-1) and No. 17 LSU (L, 2-0). The team currently sits in a tie with Ole Miss for second in the SEC West, six points behind leader LSU. It is also in a three-way tie for fifth in the overall standings along with Tennessee, which it hasn’t played yet.

South Carolina tops the SEC standings at 11-0-1, 3-0-1 SEC while Florida is third in the SEC East at 8-4-1, 2-1-1 SEC. Both programs played the Mississippi schools last weekend with South Carolina defeating Ole Miss, 1-0, and playing to a 1-1 draw with Mississippi State. Florida fell, 3-2, at Ole Miss in overtime and also played to a 1-1 tie with Mississippi State.

“South Carolina is one of the best, if not the best, defensive teams in the country. They do a fantastic job of defending on their backline,” Hoppa said. “Florida is good at every position. They are extremely athletic and they will come at you with such a dynamic offense that they are difficult to defend.”

South Carolina has posted nine shutouts on the season and has surrendered an SEC-best three goals all season while Florida is at the opposite end of the spectrum, having allowed 16 goals on the season, tied with Vanderbilt for the most of any league team.

Katy Frierson and Rebecca Howell enter the weekend tied for the Auburn team lead with four goals each while Caitlin King and Heather Havron have a team-high five assists each. Freshman goalkeeper Amy Howard leads the SEC in saves (70) and saves per game (5.83), is fifth in save percentage (.824) and 10th in goals against average (1.20).

Volleyball hits road for 2 matches
The Auburn volleyball team takes to the road for the first time in two weeks for a pair of SEC matches.

The Tigers face No. 10 Kentucky at 6 p.m. tonight and conclude with a match against Tennessee at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

“We’re playing two very good teams on the road and that is always tough,” head coach Wade Benson said. “With Kentucky being a top 10 team and Tennessee an NCAA tournament team, it’s going to be a big weekend for our young squad.

“It will be interesting to see how we come off a big weekend last weekend, winning two tough matches at home,” Benson added. “I’m anxious to see us play at a high level against these tough opponents.”

Auburn attackers enter the weekend as the fourth-best hitting squad in the Southeastern Conference and are 43rd in the country. As a team, the Tigers are hitting .248 with 737 kills on 1880 attacks and 270 errors.

Alyssa Davis continues to be among the conference’s leaders in hitting, averaging a .348 attack percentage (88 kills, 21 errors, 178 attempts).

Four Tigers have recorded more than 100 kills on the season. Freshman Sarah Bullock leads the way 143 kills, while junior Morgan Johns has 127 kills. Sophomore Kelly Fidero and freshman Katherine Culwell have 123 and 121 kills on the season, respectively. Junior libero Liz Crouch reached a major milestone during Auburn’s win over Arkansas, becoming the eighth Tiger to record 1,000 career digs.

With a 14-dig performance, Crouch now has 1,007 digs in her career, ranking sixth all-time at Auburn.

Kentucky (15-1, 5-0 SEC) enters the weekend as the 10th-ranked team in the country. The Wildcats are coming off a big win, defeating then No. 5 Florida in Gainesville, 3-2, on Oct. 2. Kentucky concluded the weekend with a five-set victory over South Carolina.

Junior Sarah Mendoza was awarded SEC Player of the Week after putting together two 20-kill performances for the Wildcats last weekend. The outside hitter picked up 20 kills against Florida and finished with 21 at South Carolina. Setter Sarah Rumely leads the SEC in assists per set average of 11.50. The senior has tallied 690 assists on the season.

The Tennessee Lady Vols finished 2-1 last week, defeating Louisville (3-2) and South Carolina (3-1) and falling to Florida (0-3).

Senior Chloe Goldman earned SEC Defensive Player of the Week after tallying 60 digs in three contests. Goldman is second in the league with a 4.53 digs per set. A pair of hitters is in the conference’s top 10 in Farren Powe and Leah Hinkey. Powe is sixth with a .342 attack percentage, while Hinkey is seventh with a .340 attack percentage.

Auburn returns to the Student Activity Center, hosting a pair of SEC matches next weekend. The Tigers take on No. 6 Florida at 6 p.m. on Oct. 16. and close out the weekend with a 2:30 p.m. match against South Carolina on Oct. 18.

Equestrian makes 1st road trip of season
The Auburn equestrian team travels for the first time this season to Martin, Tenn., today to face Tennessee-Martin at 1 p.m. at the Ned McWherter Agricultural Complex.

“This is our first road trip,” said Auburn head coach Greg Williams. “We have competed there once before. We won’t be too familiar with their horses, but this is a great time for some of our first year competitors to see what it’s like to compete on the road.”

The Tigers are 2-1 on the season with their wins coming against Texas Christian and Southern Methodist. The Skyhawks are 0-1, having lost to Georgia in the season opener.

Riding for the Tigers in Hunt Seat Equitation on the Flat are Chelsea Anheuser, Katie Breedlove, Dottie Grubb, Mallory Kolpin and Lindsay Portela with Anna Schierholz as the alternate. Riding in Hunt Seat Equitation over Fences are Anheuser, Breedlove, Grubb, Schierholz and Grace Socha with Mallory Kolpin as the alternate.

Riding for the Tigers in Western Horsemanship are Mary Casey, Bailey Dymond, Casey Fowler, Kristin Hansen and Indy Roper with Jessica Remey as the alternate. Riding in Western Reining are Jillian Fuller, Kelsey George, Jessica Jones, Paige Monfore and Kim Pope with Lydia Hinshaw as the alternate.

Women’s golf heads to tourney in N.C.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The third-ranked Auburn women’s golf team returns to action this weekend, traveling to the 34th annual Tar Heel Invitational, hosted by the University of North Carolina.

In last year’s invitational, the Tigers took a fifth-place finish as they came into the clubhouse with a 9-over-297. Junior Cydney Clanton led the team as she earned fourth place individually (78-70-70—218).

Senior Candace Schepperle took ninth (72-80-69-221) after carding a 3-under-par 69 on the final day, the best individual score for the third round.

The three-day competition will take place at the par-72, 6,285 yard UNC Finley Golf Course and will be a 54-hole stroke play event.

Looking toward the weekend, head coach Kim Evans is optimistic about\ facing the course yet again.

“It’s a traditional course,” Evans noted. “It has tall trees, tree-lined fairways, sharp doglegs — it has a little bit of everything. They did some restoration work on it eight or nine years ago and it’s really a quality golf course. We’re excited to get out there and play it.”

This weekend, the Tigers’ top five will be Clanton, Schepperle, Haley Wilson, Carlie Yadloczky, and Patricia Sanz.

So far this season, Clanton and Schepperle have played some of their best golf, and Evans has noticed.

“Cydney just came in playing real well and they both played well during the summer,” Evans said. “Cydney qualified for the U.S. Amateur Public Links and made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the U.S. Amateur and Candace made it to the final eight. Candace is simply continuing to play well this year.”

Evans also mentioned that Wilson has stepped up and contributed well for her sophomore season, carding two even-par tournaments thus far.

In the opening round of play, Auburn will be paired with No. 15 Duke and No. 18 South Carolina. Auburn’s tee times will begin at 8:45 a.m. off the No. 1 tee and will continue until 9:21 a.m.

Other teams participating in the Tar Heel Invitational are Alabama, Denver, Duke, East Carolina, Florida State, Kent State, Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, North Carolina-Wilmington, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest.