No.2 Auburn University vs. No.6 Texas A&M University, No.6 Baylor University, and No.9 Texas Christian University
The second ranked Auburn Tigers, who last week defeated No.1 Georgia, head to Texas to close out their season with a three match road trip against nationally ranked teams. They begin Friday with the Texas A&M Aggies, a team they beat 11-9 in October, at home. That score would suggest that this should be a close one, but the Aggies are in the midst of a pretty bad streak. They’ve lost 3 straight and are 4-5 overall. To make matters worse, they are 0-4 in the SEC with only this match against Auburn, and one next week against Georgia, left before the SEC championship. That could mean an upset in the making, but the Tigers will surely want to start this road trip off well.
They’ll visit the Baylor Bears next in Waco. Baylor is coming off an upset win over Oklahoma State, but has won two straight decisions via raw score tiebreaker, and has a match against Kansas State the day before. With little mental or physical edge, the Bears will need to jump out to another big lead to keep the Tigers at bay. These teams have not faced each other yet this season.
The tigers haven’t faced TCU yet this season either. TCU will face Kansas State on Saturday, then take on Auburn on Sunday. If the Tigers make it this far with two wins they’ll still be tired, but motivated to end their season on a really, really hot streak. TCU could use a couple of wins this weekend, but taking down Auburn will be a tall order.
No.4 Kansas State University vs. No.6 Baylor University and No.9 Texas Christian University
Before taking on Auburn, both Baylor and TCU will have to take on K-State. The Wildcats have been off for nearly a month, since they were beaten 7-5 by Auburn, and they travel to Texas for what should be two good matches. The Wildcats have suffered two tough losses during the spring season, but wins against these two Big 12 opponents would have them back on track and should keep them firmly in the top four of the coaches poll rankings. But Baylor and TCU will be tuning up for another tough matchup, and neither wants to risk going 0-2 over the weekend. Any NCEA fan will want to be paying attention to what happens in Texas this weekend. The results will have big conference and National Championship implications.
No.1 Georgia University vs. University of Tennessee Martin
The Bulldogs host the Sky Hawks for Senior Day on Saturday in Bishop. Georgia is coming off a loss to Auburn, but their chances of retaining the No.1 ranking aren’t dead, depending on how Auburn’s weekend turns out. In front of their home crowd for the last time this year, wanting a win, Georgia will be hard to beat. The Skyhawks aren’t pushovers though. They were beat pretty bad by Oklahoma State last weekend, but they’re 4-3-1 and they’ll be looking to make an impression against Georgia.
No.5 South Carolina University vs. Delaware State University
The Gamecocks will also be closing out their home season with a match against the Hornets. If records mean anything, this one should be a pushover (Delaware State is 0-10 on the year) but, as South Carolina Coach Boo Major told www.gamecocksonline.com "This will be a good test for us because Delaware State is a much better team than their record shows. For us, I think the key will be for our Western team to continue what they've been doing.” If they do, South Carolina will take a two match win streak into their final two matches of the season against Kansas State and Oklahoma State.
No.10 South Dakota State University & No.10 New Mexico State University vs. Fresno State University
The Fresno State Bulldogs will be honoring their seniors at home on Friday before a doubleheader match up with the two teams tied at No.10 in the rankings. The Bulldogs aren’t having a very good year, but they’ve got a chance to get some good momentum going into the end of their season, and into the NCEA Championships if they can secure at least one win. The SDSU Jackrabbits lost narrowly to SMU last weekend, but they are a team that’s probably better than their ranking. New Mexico State has lost three in a row. Fresno State will take on New Mexico State in the morning and SDSU in the afternoon.