Another match, another tough and disheartening loss. On Saturday afternoon, the Alabama men’s tennis team traveled to Auburn to face its in-state rival and walked away virtually empty handed in a 6-1 loss. The Crimson Tide has now been only to tally more than two points once in their last five matches. Now that it has lost its fifth straight match, Alabama’s record falls to 6-10, the lowest it’s been all season.

The Crimson Tide showed very little resistance all afternoon and the inept play would begin with doubles play. Brandon Laubser and Edward Nguyen got the fun started for the Tigers with a bruising defeat over Alexey Nesterov and Edson Ortiz 6-1. It appeared Dante Saleh and Olle Thestrup tried to one-up their fellow Auburn teammates by trying to win with more ease. Although they would not succeed, the Tiger duo was still able to cruise to a 6-2 win over Alabama’s freshman pair Thabault Cancel and Zhe Zhou. The second win would give Auburn the 1-0 lead going into singles play.

Suffice it to say that the day would not get any easier for the Crimson Tide as the Tigers kept their feet on the gas pedal as singles play came rolling around. All in consecutive sets, the Tigers rattled off four straight wins in doubles play before a player from Alabama would win a set. Auburn’s second point came from Carles Sarrio’s win over Cancel 6-3, 6-2. Ritchie Kruunenberg would fall to Laubser 6-0, 7-5. With a 3-0 advantage, Conner Huertas continued the onslaught with 6-4, 6-1 win against Ortiz. Nguyen claimed a 6-4, 6-3 win against Nesterov to cap off the four straight wins for the Tigers.

For the first and only time on the afternoon the Crimson Tide got on the board thanks to a singles victory by Zhou in his triumph over Thestrup 6-4, 1-6, 6-1. It would be Hinnisdaels who put the match to bed and grant the victory for the Tigers with his 6-4, 6-3 win over Mazen Osama.

The struggling Alabama team will be coming back home for the weekend to host a duo of SEC matches. First match will begin  March 17 at 6 p.m. as the Crimson Tide hosts the Texas A&M Aggies.