Rainy spring weather moved the first round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament indoors on Friday afternoon, but that didn’t keep the Wildcats from handling Western Michigan and advancing to face Virginia Tech in the second round Saturday afternoon.Looking to start a deep tournament run, the Wildcats came out blazing, earning the doubles point on the strength of not their No. 1 doubles team comprised of junior Tom Jomby and freshman Kevin Lai, but due to the performances on courts two and three.The tandems of Ryuji Hirooka and Beck Pennington combined with the duo of Anthony Rossi and Juan Pablo Murra gave Kentucky two quick decisive match victories, winning 8-3 and 8-1 respectively.After having nearly two weeks off, it was important to grab that doubles point and strike quickly against a scrappy Western Michigan squad.”I thought the intensity was really, really good,” said UK head coach Cedric Kauffmann. “I think it’s going to hopefully carry on to tomorrow, but I thought we played some of our best doubles today.”Though Jomby was unable to make a mark in the doubles point, he and Lai were well on their way to winning their doubles match point, he was the first off the court Friday with a dominating performance over his first-round opponent Ross VanderPloeg. Jomby made quick work of his foe, taking set one 6-0 before discarding VanderPloeg 6-4 in the second set. Jomby’s running mate in doubles, Lai, was busy making noise of his own on court No. 4, and quite literally.From the other side of the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center indoor facility, Lai could be heard yelling in celebration, point after point as he drew nearer and nearer to a victory for his team with the Cats leading 2-0. Lai got off to a great start in doubles with Jomby, playing a great match which was ultimately abandoned due to UK’s clinch, and he carried his play over to singles.He took the first set with relative ease, taking it 6-2. He was in for a battle in the second set, however, from his opponent Ruben Greiner. That’s when the intensity and his inner Jomby -known for his on-court energy and enthusiasm – began to manifest themselves.”I think he’s taking it from Tom. I think he’s looking at Rossi. He’s looking at the upperclassmen,” said Kauffmann. “I think it’s a little bit from him too. That’s just the way he is.”Lai had to battle back in set two, trailing 3-1, before knotting things up at 3-3. Then Lai had a chance to put the match away with 6-5 lead, but the back and forth continued as Greiner forced a tiebreaker at 6-6.It was all Lai from there, however, as he jumped out to a 3-0 lead that turned into a 7-3 victory to take the match in straight setsIt was a sign that the freshman has continued his season-long maturing process.”Today I tried to work on every single point during the match,” said Lai. “I’m all the way back (on court four) so I don’t have to worry about what the crowd’s doing and like with these three courts what they’re doing because I couldn’t see the score, so I just focused on my court and tried to finish for the team.”With Lai’s point, the Cats had pulled ahead to a commanding 3-0 lead with three matches still in play. Rossi was battling on court No. 1 against WMU’s No. 1 Nadin Indre. Indre gave Rossi all he could handle, though Rossi took the first set.Meanwhile, after completion of Jomby’s victory, the final match of the day got underway as junior Grant Roberts took the court. While the other matches grinded out point after point, Roberts made quick work of his opponent.After getting a later start due to the weather and moving the tournament inside with fewer courts, Roberts still managed to finish before two of the other matches, disposing of Andrew Cahn in a hasty fashion to clinch the first round victory for his team and fulfilling a role that he relishes in.”It felt pretty good,” said Roberts. “I’m used to playing on the last two, so being in the pressure situation I guess you’d say, so I’m pretty used to that. It felt pretty good to get out there and get a match and take care of business.”Roberts took both sets by the score of 6-1 and propelled the No. 1 Wildcats into a second-round matchup with No. 3 seed Virginia Tech, which defeated No. 2 Michigan. After playing several matches outside over the course of the last couple months, getting back inside today was a good change of pace for the Wildcats.”This is what’s maybe is good if it does rain,” said Kauffmann. “If we play inside (Saturday) I think it helps us, and if we play out, we’ve been playing some really good tennis outside.”No matter the venue, Kentucky will have to continue to bring the intensity Saturday if the Cats want to advance to the Sweet 16 and knock off a surging Virginia Tech bunch.”I think over the last month they’ve been playing pretty well,” Kauffmann said. “They just knocked off Michigan who’s been kind of hot through the year, so I think we’re going to have a pretty tough match. We’re at home so we hope the Big Blue Nation will help us out.”