No. 2 Kentucky (21-3, 10-0) will close out its regular season and attempt to complete a perfect conference showing Saturday when the Cats play host to No. 5 Vanderbilt (18-4, 8-2). The match is set for 1 p.m. EDT at UK?s Boone Tennis Complex. Live scoring updates will be available at ukathletics.com. Kentucky seniors Aibika Kalsarieva and Emily Foster will be honored in a brief ceremony beginning at approximately 12:45 p.m. EDT. Admission is free.
Kentucky rode a 15-match win streak en route to its first Southeastern Conference regular-season title last weekend. UK put itself in position to clinch the championship on Apr. 8 when the Cats? scored a 4-3 victory at then-No. 4 Georgia and Tennessee defeated second-place Vanderbilt by a 5-2 count in Knoxville. With a share of the championship in hand, Kentucky won the title outright two days later when UK sophomore Joelle Schwenk capped a Wildcat rally with a three-set win at the No. 4 singles position to give Kentucky a rousing 4-3 victory at Tennessee.
Kentucky must overcome a huge obstacle in the form of the fifth-ranked Commodores to complete its first undefeated league slate. Vanderbilt, like Kentucky, has been ranked among the nation?s elite throughout the season and features three players in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) singles rankings. Last Sunday, Vanderbilt blanked Georgia, 7-0, in Athens.
Senior Audra Falk leads Vanderbilt with a No. 11 singles ranking and likely will face off with UK?s Kalsarieva at the No. 1 slot. Falk claimed the only two meetings between the two a season ago in Nashville. Sophomore Amanda Fish, ranked No. 39 in the country, is 10-0 in league play at the No. 2 slot and likely will earn an All-SEC selection. She will match up with Kentucky?s 33rd-ranked sophomore Kim Coventry, who owns a 7-3 league record. UK sophomore Sarah Foster, the nation?s 50th-ranked player, likely will face VU freshman Taka Bertrand, who holds a No. 60 national ranking.
The Cats and ?Dores will start the match with what shapes up as a competitive doubles battle. Kentucky features the nation?s seventh-ranked tandem of Sarah Foster and Kalsarieva and the 14th-ranked duo of Schwenk and Coventry. Vanderbilt counters with the 39th-ranked pair of Falk and Annie Menees and the 55th-ranked tandem of Fish and Bertrand.
Kentucky knocked off the Commodores by a 4-3 count in Vandy?s last trip to Lexington, but Vanderbilt defeated Kentucky in the 2004 regular-season finale in Nashville and dealt UK another loss in the semifinals of the 2004 SEC Tournament at Vanderbilt.
Kentucky leads its series with Vanderbilt, 18-13.
