LEXINGTON ? SEC Champion Kentucky earned a No. 3 seed and will play host to Mid-American Conference champion Marshall in an NCAA women?s tennis regional next weekend, May 13-14, in Lexington, the NCAA announced Wednesday.

The Cats collected the highest seed in the history of the program and will host an NCAA regional for the first time in two seasons. Indiana and Wake Forest will face off in the first regional match on Friday, May 13 at UK?s Boone Tennis Complex. The regional final likely will be played on Saturday, May 14. The times for each regional match will be announced by the end of the week.

Kentucky meets a familiar opening-round opponent in the 69th-ranked Thundering Herd of Marshall. The Cats and Herd opened their respective seasons on Jan. 25 in Lexington, as Kentucky dealt Marshall a 6-1 defeat at the Boone Indoor Tennis Center. Should the Cats get past the Herd again, Kentucky would meet either No. 28 Wake Forest or No. 37 Indiana in the regional final. Kentucky and Wake Forest did not meet during the regular season, but UK defeated Indiana by a 6-1 margin on Feb. 20 in Lexington.

Though the Cats and Demon Deacons haven?t met in recent years, the schools? No. 1 singles players have met during the last two fall seasons in the ITA Southeast Regional final. Wake Forest?s Karin Coetzee defeated UK?s Aibika Kalsarieva in the 2003 final, though Kalsarieva returned the favor in the 2004 final last October.

UK won the last women?s tennis regional played in Lexington two seasons ago. The Cats defeated Hampton and edged Miami (Fla.) in a memorable regional final to make the NCAA Sweet 16.

Kentucky joins Stanford, Florida, UCLA and Georgia as the only schools to host NCAA men?s and women?s tennis regionals this season. Ten teams from the Southeastern Conference earned NCAA tournament selections.