Feb. 10, 2011

LEXINGTON, Ky. – After its home opener Wednesday afternoon, the Kentucky women’s tennis team is back on the road to compete against No. 19 Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., on Friday at 7 p.m. ET.

Friday’s match will be Kentucky’s fourth road match of the young season and second consecutive against an opponent ranked in the top 31 of the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association polls.

Kentucky is coming off a heartbreaking 4-3 loss in its home opener against No. 31 Ohio State. The Wildcats had great performances from their doubles teams, winning all three matches to claim the doubles point. Senior Megan Broderick and sophomore Jessica Stiles also won their respective singles matches to give Kentucky its three points for the match.

Kentucky has been led in singles play by Broderick, Stiles and freshman Caitlin McGraw, who each hold 2-2 records during the spring dual season.

Broderick has teamed up with Stiles in doubles play to go 2-2 thus far in 2011, and the freshman duo of Khristina Blajkevitch and Cece Witten are also 2-2 for the Wildcats in doubles play.

Northwestern enters Friday night’s match having also played a highly regarded schedule in the early going with three matches against top-26 opponents. Northwestern is 3-3 overall and has a 1-0 record in Big Ten play. The last time Kentucky faced Northwestern was in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2009, a 4-1 win for Northwestern.

Northwestern will provide live stats of the match at http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/w-tennis/spec-rel/nw-w-tennis-livestats.html

Go to UKathletics.com for a recap of Friday’s match and all Kentucky women’s tennis news.