LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky women’s tennis (9-11, 1-10 SEC) will hit the road for a pair of away matches one last time this conference season. The Wildcats will pay visit to Athens on Thursday to take on No. 1 Georgia (13-4, 8-3 SEC) at 5 p.m. ET and then head to Columbia to take on No. 33 South Carolina (9-10, 2-9 SEC) on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.
The Wildcats are coming off a weekend where they defeated Missouri for the first conference win of the season in Lexington. They also competed extremely well against No. 11 Vanderbilt, with play ultimately coming down to one court in singles play, dropping the match at the end of the day 4-3.
Two singles Wildcats cracked the top 100 with senior Zoe Hammond leading the charge at No. 72 and junior Julia Zhu checking in at No. 99. Both have led the squad on courts one and two of singes throughout the season, looking for a big win against the nation’s best team in No. 1 Georgia this weekend and at a tough place to play in South Carolina.
No. 1 Georgia (13-4, 8-3 SEC) is led by ranked singles players in No. 7 Aysegul Mert, No. 31 Anastasiia Lopata, No. 46 Anastasiia Gureva, No. 61 Deniz Dilek, No. 92 Sofia Rojas, and No. 101 Emma Dong. In doubles, No. 7 Mert/Dilek, No. 15 Lopata/Paukstyte, No. 62 Mert/Gureva, and No. 81 Dong/Dilek.
No. 33 South Carolina (9-10, 2-9 SEC) are led by singles No. 50 Helena Buchwald and No. 57 Kaitlyn Carnicella. In doubles they have two ranked pairs in No. 12 Friedman/Buchwald and No. 55 Carnicella/Larsson.
The Wildcats hope to pull off the upset after a great weekend on the courts this past week. Once again, Thursday’s match will begin at 5 p.m. ET, with Saturdays at 1 p.m. ET. Fans can follow along live stats via StatBroadcast and find links to watch on UKAthletics.com.
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