The remaining members of the University of Kentucky men’s tennis team were eliminated from the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships in Norcross, Ga., on Friday, January 19, as two singles dropped their second round matches.

Junior Reven Stephens lost a tough battle with Georgia’s Nicolas Boeker, 6-4, 6-4, while freshman Rahim Esmail was overpowered by UGA’s Brandon Wagner, a seeded player, 6-3, 6-4. UK’s doubles tandem of juniors Johan Grunditz and Gustav Pousette defaulted to the second-seeded duo of Tiago Ruffoni and Georges Matijasevic of Auburn.

“We came into this tournament with some pretty tough matchups,” Coach Dennis Emery said. “I think that this was certainly a good learning experience for our players, and it gave us the chance to get a taste for the tough SEC competition that we consistently face.”

Several other members of the Kentucky squad will be competing in an invitational tournament starting Saturday, Jan. 20 at the Boone Indoor Tennis Center in Lexington. Sophomores Elliott Datlow and Todd Scheck will join freshman Justin Kinney in representing the Cats in the tournament. Other schools competing include Ohio State, DePaul, Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State. Action gets underway at 11 a.m. on Saturday and continues on Sunday.