Kentucky overcame an Indiana sweep of doubles play with a solid singles effort, as the Cats returned to their winning ways with a 4-3 defeat of the Hoosiers Wednesday evening at UK?s Boone Tennis Complex.
After the Hoosiers swept doubles play, Kentucky seized control of the match in singles play. Senior Jesse Witten needed only an hour to defeat IU?s Jakub Praibis by a 6-4, 6-0 count. Senior Matt Emery split his first two sets at second singles against Indiana?s Ryan Recht before extending UK?s lead to 2-0 with a 6-3 final set.
Junior Alex Hume took a one-set lead and trailed 5-4 in the second set against Mike McCarthy at fourth singles but rallied to win the match in a tiebreaker. Senior Tigran Martirosyan provided the clinching point at fifth singles against Neil Kenner with a 7-5, 6-2 win.
Court three featured a three-hour battle between UK?s Nate Emge and Indiana?s David Bubenicek. Emge claimed the first set, 6-4, but Bubenicek captured the final two sets by 7-5 margins to give the Hoosiers their first singles victory on the day. The Hoosiers? John Stone added a victory over UK?s Nolan Polley in a third-set supertiebreaker.
UK returns to the courts Friday against South Carolina at the Boone Tennis Complex.
No. 28 Kentucky 4, No. 65 Indiana 3
Doubles
1. Stone/Recht (IU) def. No. 19 Martirosyan/Witten (UK) ? 8-6
2. No. 57 Praibis/Ishtuganov (IU) def. Emery/Sundh (UK) ? 8-5
3. McLaughlin/McCarthy (IU) def. Emge/Hume (UK) ? 8-4
Singles
1. No. 6 Jesse Witten (UK) def. No. 56 Jakub Praibis (IU) ? 6-4, 6-0
2. Matt Emery (UK) def. Ryan Recht (IU) ? 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
3. David Bubenicek (IU) def. Nate Emge (UK) ? 4-6, 5-7, 5-7
4. Alex Hume (UK) def. Mike McCarthy (UK) ? 6-2, 7-6 (2)
5. Tigran Martirosyan (UK) def. Neil Kenner (IU) ? 7-5, 6-2
6. John Stone (IU) def. Nolan Polley (UK) ? 7-6, 4-6, 1-0 (6)