Nov. 15, 1999

The University of Kentucky received the No. 7 seed in the Southeastern Conference Volleyball Tournament, set for Nov. 19-21 in Knoxville, Tenn., and will play the second-seeded and 24th ranked Arkansas Lady Razorbacks. The match will take place at Tennessee?s Stokely Athletics Center on Friday, Nov. 19, at 2 p.m. ET.

?We didn?t really care who we were matched up with,? UK Coach Jona Braden said. ?I knew that our players would be prepared to play and fight hard against whoever we went up against. We are just excited to be back in the tournament.?

Kentucky (14-13, 6-8 SEC) lost a tough 3-2 decision on Oct. 8 to the then-21st ranked Lady ?Backs. That match-up took place at UK?s Memorial Coliseum and the Cats held a 2-1 lead in games before falling in five games to UA.

The Cats 6-8 conference record placed them in a tie with Alabama and LSU for the sixth seed in the tourney. The seeds were based on a head-to-head tiebreaker system. While Alabama and LSU split their season series, the Tigers earned the No. 6 seed by virtue of its 3-1 victory over UK on Oct. 10. Thus the Cats received the No. 7 seed for defeating the Tide, 3-2, on Oct. 1. Alabama received the No. 8 seed and will play top-seeded Florida, which is currently ranked 4th in the country. The ?Bama-UF match is set for Friday at 4:30 p.m.

For the right to play the winner of the UK-Arkansas match, LSU will play Friday at 11:30 a.m. against third-seeded South Carolina, who the Cats defeated Sunday to earn a berth in the tourney. In the tournament?s final match-up, the No. 4 seed and host Lady Vols will take on the No. 5-seeded Auburn Tigers.

This is the 21st appearance in the SEC Tournament for the Wildcats who have won the tournament title five times.