LEXINGTON ? Third-seeded Kentucky joins Marshall, Indiana and Wake Forest in an NCAA women?s tennis regional set to begin Friday morning at UK?s Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex. Indiana and Wake Forest, who earned at-large bids, will kick off the regional at 10 a.m. EDT before SEC champion Kentucky takes on Mid-American Conference champion Marshall beginning at 2 p.m. EDT. The winners of Friday?s matches will meet in Saturday?s regional final at 3 p.m. EDT. General admission is $5 each day. UK students will be admitted for $3 with their student ID.
The Cats collected the highest seed in the program?s history (only the top-16 teams are seeded) and will host an NCAA regional for the first time in two seasons. Kentucky looks to make the NCAA round of 16 for a fourth-consecutive season, but a challenging regional field stands in the Cats? way.
Kentucky (23-5, 10-1 SEC) will meet a familiar opening-round opponent in the 69th-ranked Thundering Herd of Marshall (19-7, 8-1 MAC). 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. Marshall features senior Ashley Kroh, a Louisville native who teamed with Jessica Johnson a season ago to reach the NCAA doubles final. Marshall upset top-seeded Western Michigan in the MAC tournament to qualify for the NCAA field of 64.
No. 28 Wake Forest (13-10, 5-5 ACC) and 37th-ranked Indiana (14-11, 8-2 Big Ten) will meet for the second time this season in the first regional match-up. The Hoosiers dealt the Demon Deacons a 6-1 defeat on Feb. 12 at Indiana. The Hoosiers placed second in the Big Ten regular-season title race, while Wake Forest tied for fifth in the highly-competitive Atlantic Coast Conference, which boasts five of the nation?s top-15 teams.
Kentucky captured an NCAA regional at Harvard a season ago, as the Cats defeated Boston and Ohio State to move on to the Sweet 16, where UK fell to eventual national champion Stanford. Kentucky 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.
Kentucky joins Stanford, Florida, UCLA and Georgia as the only schools to host NCAA men?s and women?s tennis regionals this season. The Southeastern Conference leads the nation with 10 schools in the women?s field of 64.
