Sept. 2, 2014
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky men’s tennis team, under the direction of third-year head coach Cedric Kauffmann has announced its 2014-15 schedule, which includes 20 scheduled matches in the regular season for the spring of 2015.
Kentucky’s slate of matches includes seven matches against teams that made up the 2014 NCAA Sweet 16 and two teams that made the Elite Eight a season ago. The Wildcats schedule also features matches against 13 Southeastern Conference opponents, in which 11 of them made the 2014 NCAA Tournament, the most of any conference in the country for the third year running.
Thursday, Jan. 15 will be the season’s opening matches for UK, as the Wildcats will host a doubleheader against Dayton (Noon ET) and Eastern Kentucky (5 p.m. ET) to open the season. After a day off, the Wildcats will then face back-to-back teams out of the Atlantic Coast Conference in the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Jan. 17, 1 p.m. ET) and the Duke Blue Devils (Jan. 19, 1 p.m. ET).
Kentucky’s six-match homestand to begin the season will conclude on Jan. 23 and 24 as the Hilary J. Boone Varsity Tennis Center will host the 2015 Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Kick-Off Weekend. UK will be the top-seeded team in the Lexington Regional, and will host second seeded Vanderbilt, third seeded South Florida and fourth seeded Penn State. The winner of the Lexington Regional will go on to play in the 2015 ITA National Indoor Championships in Chicago, Ill., and to be hosted by the University of Illinois.
UK will then play six scheduled road matches in a row away from Lexington, and additionally the possibility of ITA National Indoors adding in three matches. Kentucky will play at Ohio State (Jan. 29, 5 p.m.), and at Illinois (Feb. 6, 6 p.m.) before making the trip to Chicago for ITA National Indoors.
The later end of the road trip features Kentucky’s final two non-conference matches, as UK travels to Birmingham, Ala., to face both Samford and Lipscomb on Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. ET and 2 p.m. ET.
After the final two non-conference matches, SEC play will kick into gear the following weekend as UK travels to 2014 SEC Tournament Champions, Texas A&M, on Feb. 27 (7 p.m.) and then LSU on March 1 at 2 p.m. ET.
The Tennessee Volunteers will make the trip to Lexington for a stand-alone weekend, as UK returns home on March 8 for a 1 p.m. ET match at the Boone Tennis Center.
UK then hits the road again for a Thursday match against South Carolina (March 12, 3 p.m.) and then returns home on March 15, for a showdown between the last two SEC champions, against Georgia (March 15, 1 p.m.)
The season’s second stand-alone weekend will feature a road trip to Nashville, Tenn., as the Wildcats will face the Vanderbilt Commodores to mark the halfway point of the conference season on March 21.
Mississippi State (March 27, 5 p.m.) and Alabama (March 29, 1 p.m. ) will make the trip to Lexington as the Wildcats return home for a weekend before heading out west to play Arkansas (April 2, 3 p.m.) and Ole Miss (April 5, 2 p.m.) to round out the away portion of the 2015 schedule.
Kentucky’s regular season will then conclude on April 10 and 12 for a Friday/Sunday weekend against Florida and Auburn, respectfully.
The 2015 SEC Tennis Championship will be April 15-19 and will be hosted by the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station, Texas.
For continuing coverage of UK men’s tennis, log on to UKathletics.com.
