No. 5 Kentucky (17-3, 6-0) will play for its 12th-consecutive victory Friday when the Cats head for the plains to meet Auburn (7-8, 0-6). The match is set for 5 p.m. EST at AU?s Luther Young Tennis Complex. Live scoring will be available at auburntigers.com.
UK hits the road for the first time in three weeks looking to extend its best start in conference play under Coach Mark Guilbeau. The Cats have outscored their opponents by a 64-13 margin and recorded eight sweeps of doubles play during their 11-match win streak, which includes a 5-2 win over then-No. 2 Florida, the defending SEC champion, earlier this month. Kentucky has gone unbeaten for a span of nearly seven weeks. North Carolina dealt the Cats their last defeat on Feb. 12 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Several Wildcats will put singles-win streaks on the line Friday against the Tigers. Senior All-American Aibika Kalsarieva is unbeaten in her last 13 matches, and sophomore Kim Coventry has captured 11-consecutive matches. Sophomore Sarah Foster has won three-straight matches and 10 of her last 11 contests. Junior Danielle Petrisko is unbeaten in her last four matches at No. 6 singles, and sophomore Lara Maurer has won three-consecutive matches at the No. 5 slot. Foster and Kalsarieva have teamed up for nine-straight wins at the No. 1 doubles position, and the Coventry/Schwenk and Maurer/Emily Foster doubles pairs have been victorious in six of their last seven matches.
Auburn enters the match having lost its last seven matches. The Tigers suffered a pair of shutout defeats last weekend at Florida and South Carolina. Auburn senior Sarah Suitor is a product of Lone Oak H.S. in Paducah, Ky.
SEC Standings (as of Mar. 31, 2005 – secsports.com)
-each school has five conference matches remaining-
Eastern Div. SEC Overall
Kentucky 6-0 17-3 Georgia 6-0 12-2 Vanderbilt 5-1 15-3 Florida 4-2 10-2 South Carolina 4-2 9-4 Tennessee 4-2 11-5
Western Div. SEC Overall
Miss. State 3-3 9-3 Ole Miss 2-4 9-6 LSU 1-5 7-7 Alabama 1-5 6-9 Arkansas 0-6 10-6 Auburn 0-6 7-8
Friday?s Matches
Kentucky at Auburn Arkansas at Mississippi State Ole Miss at LSU Vanderbilt at Alabama Florida at Georgia South Carolina at Tennessee
