Auburn, Ala -- This weekend, the State University of New York at New Paltz NCEA team will fly out to Auburn University's equestrian center to face the Tigers for the first time, as well as Texas Christian University, and once again Sweet Briar College.

The Tigers head into the show 2-0 after defeating University of Tennessee at Martin 17-1, and Oklahoma State University 12-8. TCU is 4-1 after defeating Texas Tech 20-0, South Dakota State 17-3, Fresno State 12-7, and Southern Methodist University 11-9, picking up its sole loss to Texas A&M, 11-4. 

The Vixens come into the competition 1-2, beating SUNY New Paltz 7-3, and picking up a pair of losses to Fresno State 6-4, and University of Georgia 8-2. The Hawks enter with a similar record, with one win against Lynchburg University 6-2, and a pair of losses to Delaware State University 9-2 and Sweet Briar College 7-3.

The Hawks will take on the Tigers first Friday, followed by the Horned Frogs, and Saturday they will match up again against the Vixens.

"My goals for the girls are to ride the best we can and hopefully improvement on our flat scores from our match two weeks ago against Sweet Briar." said SUNY New Paltz coach Helaina Ricciardi. "I feel that Auburn will be our biggest challenge this weekend, but we are looking forward to competing against TCU since we have never competed against them yet. And of course another match against Sweet Briar on horses they aren't familiar with."

With NCEA on the road in Alabama, the IHSA team will be headed to New Jersey on Saturday to attend the United States Military Academy's show, hosted at Centenary University's equestrian center. This will be their third competition of the season, and so far the team has taken third and fifth-place respectively.

With junior Frances Baldinucci and senior Katie Zacharda qualifying for regionals and pointing into new divisions last show, the Hawks will open up more possibilities for points on the board this weekend.  

"I hope to see the girls continue to bring confidence to their rides which will help overall in the ribbons." said SUNY New Paltz coach Brooke Nestor. "I believe we could be more competitive in points this show. With Katie pointing up to intermediate jumps we have more riders in different levels to go on our point card which will make a huge difference in points."

For everything #NPHawks be sure to follow on Twitter at @nphawks, Instagram and Facebook at @newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our Youtube channel, New Paltz Hawks.