05/22 at 12:41 AM

Justin Fradejas is the latest junior college player to sign a National Letter of Intent to play for the Auburn baseball team.

Fradejas joins Drew Madrigal, who signed Tuesday, as signees for the Tigers’ 2010 season.

Fradejas is a 6-foot, 190-pound, right-handed-hitting outfielder from Northwest Florida State College.

“Justin is a very athletic player who has excelled in one of the toughest conferences in Junior College baseball,” Auburn head coach John Pawlowski said. “He will bring speed and an experienced right-handed bat to our 2010 team.”

Fradejas hit .323 with 14 doubles, three triples eight home runs and 48 RBI as a sophomore at NWFSC, earning All-Panhandle Conference honors at the conclusion of the season. His freshman season he hit .348 with seven doubles, a triple and 16 RBI. During his two seasons combined, he stole 38 stolen bases for Doug Martin’s club.

Fredejas lettered three times at Pine Forest High School, earning First Team All-State honors as a senior when he hit .446 with 12 doubles, four triples, three home runs and 20 steals.

Fradejas is Auburn’s second commitment from Northwest Florida State College for the 2010 season, joining Auburn High product Creede Simpson.

Puetz, Tsyrenov advance in doubles
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Auburn’s Tim Puetz and Alexey Tsyrenov advanced to the Sweet 16 of the 2009 NCAA Men’s Doubles Championship on Thursday after defeating Illinois’ Dennis Nevolo and Ruan Roelofse in the first round.

The 2009 NCAA Men’s Tennis Doubles Championships are held at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center on the campus of Texas A&M University. Doubles play commenced Thursday with the championship match slated for Monday.

Puetz and Tsyrenov, ranked No. 10 in the nation by the ITA, won the first set against 21st-ranked Nevolo and Roelofse 6-3 before pulling out the 6-0 set and match victory in the second set.

The Auburn duo improved to 34-11 on the season with the victory and will face fourth-ranked Robert Farah and Steve Johnson (34-10) of South California in the Sweet 16. Farah and Johnson advanced after defeating Texas Christian’s Emanu Brighiu and Adrian Simon, 6-2, 6-4, in the first round.

The 2009 Auburn women’s tennis season ended Thursday with a pair of losses in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship.

Senior Alex Haney fell in the second round of the singles tournament while she and fellow senior Whitney Chappell lost in the first round of the doubles tournament.

Playing Stanford’s Hilary Barte in the second round of the singles championship, Haney was primed to pull off the upset after winning the first set, 7-5. But, Barte, ranked seventh in the nation, stormed back in the next two sets for 6-4, 6-2 wins over No. 28 Haney for the bid into the Sweet 16.

Barte, the Pac-10 Player of the Year, improves to 23-1 on the season while Haney falls to 18-4. Barte will play Florida’s Marrit Boonstra in the Sweet 16.

Haney returned to the court a few hours later to team up with Chappell in the first round of the NCAA Doubles Tournament. The Tiger duo, ranked 12th in the nation, took the first set to a tiebreaker, but lost the point 7-4 to the No. 7 team of Mari Andersson and Jana Juricova (California) for the 7-6 loss. The Golden Bears kept rolling in the second set for the 6-3 set and match victory.

Andersson and Juricova will take on Miami’s Michaela Kissell and Laura Vallverdu in the second round after improving to 7-1 on the season. Haney and Chappell fell to 10-4 in the final match as Tigers.

For additional information on the NCAA Tennis Tournament, including match times, brackets and live stats, go to http://www.AggieAthletics.com.

Volleyball releases 2009 schedule
With the start of the 2009 season just three months away, the Auburn volleyball team and second-year head coach Wade Benson announced the full schedule on Thursday. Matches against eight teams who advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2008 highlight the competitive schedule that includes three tournaments and 15 home matches.

“With the SEC being very strong in 2009, our thought process for this season was to have a varied preseason schedule in order to help us prepare for a really difficult conference slate,” said Benson. “With nine newcomers and no seniors on the roster, it is very exciting, but what we tried to develop in the preseason is showing the range of college volleyball prior to getting into the SEC portion of our schedule.”

Benson said the early portion of the schedule will also allow the staff to work in various lineups and give everyone a look.

“We are going to have to play a lot of people in a lot of situations to see where we are at,” said Benson. “We are playing a wide-ranging schedule that lets you see a multitude of systems and levels of play to see a lot of players in different situations.”

The Tigers open their 2009 campaign at home with the War Eagle Invitational, Aug. 28-29, in the Student Activities Center. They will face in-state rival Alabama A&M, who advanced to the 2008 NCAA Tournament as the Southwestern Athletic Conference champion in their first match, while also hosting UAB and Iona. 

After the tournament, the Tigers play Troy at home on Sept. 2 before gearing up for the Minnesota Tournament, Sept. 4-5 in Minneapolis.

The tournament features Minnesota and Iowa State, who advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago, along with George Washington.

“We put a team like UAB, who was very strong last year and looks to be strong again, to test us in our first tournament and we then wanted to follow that up with a good test at Minnesota to see what the highest level of the SEC is going to be like,” said Benson.

Following the Minnesota Tournament, the Tigers will take a break from the road and host Jacksonville State on Sept. 8, before traveling again to the Georgia Southern Tournament. The Tournament, which features Coastal Carolina, Wake Forest and GSU, wraps up the non-conference part of the schedule. 

“We finish out the preseason at Georgia Southern and we will see a broad spectrum of competition with teams from the ACC, Big South and Southern Conferences,” said Benson. “The purpose of the preseason slate is to show us where we need to be by the time we enter conference, as well as give us some opportunities for wins.”

With the completion of the GSU Tournament, the Tigers’ focus will turn to the SEC portion of its schedule. One of the toughest leagues in the country, the SEC placed four teams in the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

“The SEC will be very top-strong this season with Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee leading the way with senior and junior-laden teams with a lot of history behind them,” said Benson.

Auburn opens its SEC slate with two road matches against Mississippi State on Sept. 18, and in-state rival Alabama on Sept. 20. 

The Tigers then return home for three matches beginning with LSU on Sept. 25.  A week later on Oct. 2 the team will host Ole Miss, followed by Arkansas on Oct. 4.

After three home matches, the Tigers hit the road again to face two SEC rivals that advanced to the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament in Kentucky (Oct. 9) and Tennessee (Oct. 11).  AU then returns home to host four matches against Florida (Oct. 16), South Carolina (Oct. 18), Alabama (Oct. 23) and Mississippi State (Oct. 25). An away match against Georgia on Oct. 28 rounds out the month October for the Tigers.

The month of November wraps up the regular season with SEC meetings that includes five road matches against LSU (Nov. 1), South Carolina (Nov. 6), Florida (Nov. 8), Arkansas (Nov. 20) and Ole Miss (Nov. 22). Squeezed in the middle of the road stretch are home matches against Tennessee (Nov. 13) and Kentucky (Nov. 15). The Tigers end the regular season with a home match against Georgia on Nov. 25. 

A relatively young team that graduated only one senior from 2008, the Tigers look to improve from last season’s 6-25 (1-19 SEC) record.

In all, the Tigers will play 15 home matches, 12 road matches and four neutral-location matches in 2009.  Auburn is also at home during two home football weekends: Ball State (Sept. 26) and Kentucky (Oct. 17).

Mazzaferro named academic all-district
Auburn junior diver Dan Mazzaferro was named to the 2009 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IV At-Large First Team, the College Sports Information Directors of America announced Thursday. 

Mazzaferro will now be one of 10 male athletes from District IV to be placed on the national ballot for All-America consideration.

Mazzaferro earned his way onto the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team for the second time in his career. The junior also has a near-perfect 3.92 GPA while pursuing a pre-Med path.

At the 2009 SEC Championships, Mazzaferro tied for second off the 1-meter springboard while winning both the 3-meter springboard and the platform finals.  The Cheshire, Conn., native placed second in both the platform and synchronized 3-meter springboard finals at the 2009 Speedo Spring Nationals.

Mazzaferro won his first individual SEC title in 2008, taking top honors on the platform with a score of 444.65. He followed that up with fourth-place finishes on the 1-meter and 3-meter.

To be nominated for the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Team, student-athletes must be a starter or important reserve, and carry a cumulative GPA of 3.20 or higher. Team members are selected by a vote of members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) within the district. The District IV team is complied of athletes in the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.