The Auburn soccer team will face two tough SEC West opponents on the road this weekend as it travels to No. 19 LSU for a 7 p.m. match today and then to Arkansas for a 1 p.m. match on Sunday.

Auburn, which is 6-5-2, 2-1-1 SEC, is currently in second place in the SEC West, two points behind West-leader Ole Miss and a point ahead of both of this weekend’s opponents.

“Both of these teams are very good. Arkansas has upset a lot of teams, playing a fantastic schedule, and LSU is a top-25 team and they return every player off of last season’s SEC West Championship team,” Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. “These games are big for us in the big picture as well as the SEC race because we need some quality wins and this weekend gives us that opportunity.”

Puetz, Tsyrenov go winless at ITA
TULSA, Okla. — Auburn’s Tim Puetz and Alexey Tsyrenov combined to go 0-3 Thursday in the first round of the main draw at the D’Novo/ITA All-American Championships.

Puetz was defeated by the No.11 seed Steven Moneke of Ohio State, 6-4, 6-0, in the first round of singles play. Tsyrenov fell to Stanford’s Alex Clayton, the No. 4 overall seed in the tournament, 6-1, 6-4.

Tysrenov and Puetz then teamed up in doubles competition. The duo won three matches to move on to the main draw of 32 teams.

They took on Raony Carvalho and Christian Rojmar of Texas Tech but fell in a close 8-6 match.

Three other Tigers will hit the court today as Alex Stamchev, Milan Krnjetin and Powell Porter are set to compete at the North Florida Invitational in Jacksonville, Fla.

Volleyball hosts UGA, LSU on weekend
The Auburn volleyball team (5-12, 0-6 SEC) returns home for the first time in two weeks this weekend for matches against Georgia (9-9, 2-5 SEC) and LSU (8-6, 3-4 SEC).

Action in the weekend series begins at 6 p.m. today against the Bulldogs in AU’s Student Activities Center.

The Tigers are coming off a four-match road swing where they took on Alabama, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Kentucky. It is the first home series since Auburn opened its SEC schedule Sept. 19 and 21 against Arkansas and Ole Miss.

“It feels good to come home, it is always nice to come home and play on your own court,” said head coach Wade Benson. “We have been playing very hard, had some good matches, and I really think we have improved. We are hoping for a big crowd with the Arkansas football game at home this weekend and I think everyone will be impressed with what they see out of our team.”