After a tough meet against two powerful teams two weeks ago, the Tennessee men’s and women’s swimming and diving team are ready to dive into this week’s matchup against Auburn and Louisville.
On Halloween, Kentucky and Indiana came to town to challenge the Vols. The No. 12 men and No. 14 women both beat Kentucky 234-64 and 191-109, respectively. Indiana, however, downed both Tennessee teams, as the men fell 157-143, and the women dropped their contest 169-129. Indiana’s men ranked eighth in the country, while their women ranked 11th.
“On deck and in the pool, we need to amp it up every day and every single practice,” junior Chris Sadsad said. “Before we know it, the season’s gonna come to an end, and it’s gonna be SEC and NCAA Championship time.”
Now the men’s and women’s teams have two powerhouses coming to their pool to try to swim away with an upset.
Louisville’s men rank ninth nationally, and are coming off a victory against the North Carolina Tar Heels. In their last meet, Louisville’s men’s team posted ten NCAA B-cut times compared to the Tar Heel’s five such times.
The women’s team is just as talented as the men. Ranked 13th nationally, the Cardinal women fell in their last match against North Carolina.
“They don’t really have any weaknesses, and their swimmers tend to develop really well,” head coach Matt Kredich said. “I think we match up pretty well against them, but it’s pretty clear to me that in order to beat them, we’re gonna have to have some people make some significant improvements over what we’ve done in the past … They’re gonna hold us to a very high standard.
The men and women for Auburn are coming off back-to-back SEC victories over Alabama and LSU. The No.17 men’s team won their matchups 167-133 and 225-75, while the No. 15 women won 174-126 and 176-124.
“They may be the most confident team in the country,” Kredich said. “Over the last twenty years, they’ve probably been consistently the best program in the country. They’re very skilled, and they’re tough to beat on the finish. They’re good across all events. Where Auburn is stronger, Louisville is weaker … The more we look at it, the more we think that we’re gonna have to just swim and dive really well to beat both of those teams.”
So far on the year, both Tennessee teams are 3-2 and 1-0 in conference play. Kredich says that he is proud of the way his team has performed thus far.
“It’s a fun year and a really fun team,” he said. “Their energy has been fantastic … October is really tough because it’s far enough into the season, so they’re really feeling fatigued, but it’s far enough from the very end to where it can be difficult to connect to that ‘end of season’ mission. But, this team has done a fantastic job of staying focused and energized through that period.”
The meet against Louisville and Auburn will take place at 3 p.m. EST this Friday at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center. The first 50 fans to enter get a free T-shirt, hot dog and drink.
