The youngest team in the NCAA Women?s Tennis Tournament extended its post-season run to the NCAA Sweet 16 Saturday afternoon as No. 17 Kentucky, the tournament?s 15th-seeded team loaded with first-year players, eliminated No. 39 Ohio State by a 4-0 count at Harvard?s Beren Tennis Center in Cambridge, Mass. Coach Mark Guilbeau will take a Kentucky team to the NCAA Sweet 16 for a third-consecutive season. Guilbeau is responsible for all three Sweet 16 bids in the 31-year history of the program.

Kentucky?s Kim Coventry and Lara Maurer scored an 8-2 victory at No. 2 doubles before UK?s 14th-ranked doubles tandem of junior Aibika Kalsarieva and Sarah Foster posted an 8-5 victory over Ohio State?s Erica Fisk and Jackie Leskovar at No. 1 to clinch the doubles point.

The Cats maintained their dominance of the Buckeyes in singles play. The 16th-ranked Kalsarieva made short work of Ohio State?s Lindsay Williams, scoring a 6-2, 6-0 win to give Kentucky a 2-0 lead. UK?s Coventry displayed one of her strongest performances of the season, dispatching Lindsay Adams by a 6-0, 6-2 count at the sixth singles slot. Finally, UK freshman Christine Simpson put the finishing touches on the Kentucky victory with a 6-0, 6-3 defeat of Lindsay Bryan.

?Getting to the Sweet 16 was one of the top-five goals we set before the season,? Simpson said. ?We worked so hard to get here and this match today proves that we deserved to go to Athens (Georgia) next week.?

?It took a lot of determination and hard work to get to this point,? Foster said. ?We set high standards for ourselves, and this makes us so much more motivated to go further this season and beyond.?

Kentucky?s active roster of seven true freshmen and a junior transfer from an NAIA school extends the Cats? post-season excellence brought about by the 2003 senior class of Sarah Witten, Amy Trefethen, Shannon Stafford, Jill Buckley and Leigh Bradwell. The 2003 seniors, with help from many others, took Kentucky to its first two NCAA Sweet 16 appearances. The 2004 Wildcat freshman class has the makings of a landmark group of student-athletes at Kentucky.

?The effort is unbelievable from this young group of kids, across the board,? Guilbeau said. ?To maintain that effort, business-like approach and intelligence throughout the entire season is so impressive. It?s hard for me to even explain it. Nothing that the team has done is more important than the sheer effort they exert during these matches. I am so, so happy for these kids and for our program to maintain the level established by the strong teams before them here at UK.?

Kentucky will meet the winner of today?s match between top-ranked Stanford and Michigan next Thursday, May 20 at the NCAA Sweet 16. The match is set for 3 p.m. EDT in Athens, Ga.

No. 17 Kentucky 4, No. 39 Ohio State 0

Doubles

1. No. 14 Kalsarieva/Foster (UK) def. Fisk/Leskovar (OSU), 8-5
2. Coventry/Maurer (UK) def. Williams/Colville (OSU), 8-2
3. Schwenk/Winebrenner (UK) vs. DeCamilla/Adams (OSU) – 6-3, susp.

Singles

1. No. 16 Aibika Kalsarieva (UK) def. Lindsay Williams (OSU) – 6-2, 6-0
2. No. 48 Sarah Foster (UK) vs. Erica Fisk (OSU) – 7-5, 2-3 (susp.)
3. Joelle Schwenk (UK) vs. Jackie Leskovar (OSU) – 6-4, 5-2 (susp.)
4. Emily DeCamilla (OSU) vs. Lara Maurer (UK) – 6-3, 5-3 (susp.)
5. Kim Coventry (UK) def. Lindsay Adams (OSU) – 6-0, 6-2
6. Christine Simpson (UK) def. Lindsay Bryan (OSU) – 6-0, 6-3

Front Row: Volunteer Assistant Coach Jon Thompson, Aibika Kalsarieva, Christine Simpson, Athletic Trainer Tiffany Sudduth.
Back Row: Assistant Coach Carlos Drada, Joelle Schwenk, Liis Sober, Sarah Foster, Kim Coventry, Caroline Winebrenner, Lara Maurer, Head Coach Mark Guilbeau, Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart