March 1, 2003

Fresh off of an impressive 6-1 victory over Tennessee Friday, the ninth-ranked UK men’s tennis team will take on 22nd-ranked Georgia Sunday for the second time in nine days. The match is set for 1 p.m. at UK’s Boone Tennis Center.

Kentucky handed the Bulldogs a 4-2 defeat Feb. 21 at the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Louisville. The Cats opened the match by securing the doubles point and finished off the Dogs by taking three singles matches. The victory was UK’s first over UGA since a 4-3 triumph in Athens six years ago.

An intriguing dual is likely to take place at No. 1 singles Sunday as 10th-ranked Jesse Witten will try to avenge a loss in the schools’ last meeting to UGA’s Bo Hodge. Upon his victory over the then-fourth-ranked Witten, Hodge vaulted to No. 6 in the latest ITA rankings. Georgia also features No. 31 Nicolas Boeker, who teams up with Hodge to form the ITA’s 37th-ranked doubles pair.

Kentucky features the ITA’s 104th-ranked student-athlete in junior Rahim Esmail. In addition, freshman Alex Hume has been playing well of late, winning six of his last seven matches.

After Sunday’s match, Kentucky will take a few days off to prepare for a couple of non-conference matches next weekend in Lexington against No. 4 Baylor and No. 42 Indiana.