No. 5 Kentucky will make a run at its 13th-consecutive victory Sunday when the Cats take on No. 27 Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The match is set for 1 p.m. EDT at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. Live scoring updates will be available at www.rolltide.com.
Kentucky (18-3, 7-0) enters Sunday?s match in sole possession of first place in the Southeastern Conference and SEC Eastern division standings. UK began the weekend tied with third-ranked Georgia for the conference lead, but the Cats took first for themselves Friday by way of a 6-0 win at Auburn and a 4-3 Florida victory at Georgia.
UK heads into Sunday?s match with a 12-match win streak, as well as its best-ever start in conference play at 7-0. Kentucky already has surpassed its 2004 conference-win total of six matches. Coach Mark Guilbeau?s youth-laden Wildcat squad is one of only two teams in the conference, along with 45th-ranked Ole Miss, with fewer than two players who have at least three seasons of SEC experience. Eight Wildcats are participating in their second seasons of SEC competition, another, Emily Foster, is in her first, and junior Danielle Petrisko is the only Cat with more than two seasons of experience in the Southeastern Conference.
Several of those same Cats carry substantial win streaks into Sunday?s match with the Tide. Senior Aibika Kalsarieva is unbeaten in her last 14 singles contests and is 7-0 in SEC play. Sophomore Kim Coventry has captured 12-consecutive matches and also is 7-0 in the conference. Petrisko has won five-straight matches, and sophomores Sarah Foster and Lara Maurer have been victorious in their last four matches.
Alabama (6-10, 1-6) enters Sunday?s match after suffering a 6-1 loss Friday at home to No. 7 Vanderbilt. Despite its sub-.500 overall and conference records, Alabama has hung tough with several top-25 teams. The 27th-ranked Tide scored a 4-2 win over then-No. 11 Harvard and took sixth-ranked Georgia Tech, 24th-ranked South Carolina and 25th-ranked Tennessee to the limit before falling by 4-3 margins. Alabama features seventh-ranked junior Robin Stephenson, who fell to UK?s Kalsarieva in the Cats? 4-3 win a season ago in Lexington but handily defeated Kalsarieva in the fall at the ITA All-American Championships in Los Angeles. Alabama also features 58th-ranked Ashley Bentley, who teams with Stephenson to form the nation?s 28th-ranked doubles tandem.
SEC Standings ? each team has four conference matches remaining
Eastern Division SEC Overall
Kentucky 7-0 18-3 Vanderbilt 6-1 16-3 Georgia 6-1 12-3 Florida 5-2 11-2 Tennessee 5-2 12-5 South Carolina 4-3 9-5
Western Division SEC Overall
Mississippi State 4-3 10-3 Ole Miss 3-4 10-6 LSU 1-6 7-8 Alabama 1-6 6-10 Arkansas 0-7 10-7 Auburn 0-7 7-9
Sunday?s SEC matches
Kentucky at Alabama
Vanderbilt at Auburn
Florida at Tennessee
South Carolina at Georgia
Mississippi State at LSU
Ole Miss at Arkansas
