GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Women’s Tennis Team opens its 2026 conference schedule this Saturday, Feb. 21 when the Gators host the Auburn Tigers at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex. Florida will also square off against Bethune-Cookman in a non-conference home match this Sunday, Feb. 22. Both matches begin at 1 p.m. EST.
 

 
The seven-time national champion Gators are 4-1 heading into the weekend following early-season victories over Charleston Southern, Ole Miss, Troy and Louisiana. Their lone loss of the season came in a 4-3 decision at No. 11 NC State as part of the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
 
The ITA released its updated rankings earlier this week, and five different Gators are among the top 100 in the nation—Gabia Paskauskas (No. 23), Valery Gynina (No. 54), Lucie Pawlak (No. 80), Nikola Daubnerova (No. 92), and Xinyi Ning (No. 97). Daubnerova and Nong are also ranked No. 23 in the country as a doubles team.
 
Auburn enters the weekend ranked 13th in the nation and 15-1 on the year. The lone blemish on the Tigers’ ledger is a 4-3 loss to No. 1 Georgia at the ITA Indoor Championship semifinals. Auburn was picked to finish second in the preseason SEC Coaches Poll behind the Bulldogs.
 
Bethune-Cookman is 0-1 this season, and has had a pair of matches postponed due to weather. Their one result was a 7-0 loss to Stetson.
 
TEAM RECORDS

Rank	Team	W-L	Notes
No. 24	Florida	4-1	Lone loss to No. 11 N.C. State
No. 4	Auburn	15-1	Lone loss to No. 1 Georgia
	Bethune-Cookman	0-1

 
HISTORY
Florida is 46-4 against Auburn, but the Tigers have won three of the last five meetings between the teams including a 5-2 victory on Feb. 23, 2025. Nikola Daubnerova is the lone player on the 2026 squad who participated in last year’s match. She dropped a three-set decision to Alice Battesti at No. 6 singles, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, while she and her doubles partner Noémie Oliveras fell 6-2 to Ava Esposito and Maria Garcia at number three.
 
The Gators are 4-0 all-time against Bethune-Cookman, but they haven’t played against one another since the 2015 season.

GATORS LAST TIME OUT

Florida won both matches in a Friday the 13th double-header besting visiting Troy, 4-0, and Louisiana, 7-0.

 

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Gators head to Fayetteville, Ark. next Thursday, Feb. 26 for a 6 p.m. EST start against Arkansas.

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