LEXINGTON ? No. 11 Kentucky earned the 12th seed from the NCAA and will take on Horizon League champion Butler in the opening round of the NCAA men?s tennis tournament Saturday at UK?s Boone Tennis Complex. No. 18 Florida State and No. 75 Ball State open the NCAA regional at 9 a.m., while Kentucky and Butler will follow at noon. Inclement weather may delay the start times for each match, though the matches will be played rain or shine. Live scoring for each match will be available at ukathletics.com.

Kentucky (20-9) faces a familiar opening-round opponent in the unranked Bulldogs (15-2). UK met Butler in the opening round of an NCAA tennis regional last season, as the Cats dealt the Bulldogs a 4-0 defeat. Butler Coach Jason Suscha is no stranger to stiff competition from SEC opponents, having served as an assistant at Vanderbilt.

Florida State (18-7) meets Ball State in the first match of the regional. The Seminoles are coached by Dwayne Hultquist, who served as a graduate assistant under UK coach Dennis Emery in 1991. FSU features senior Mat Cloer, who owns a No. 26 ITA singles ranking.

Mid-American Conference champion Ball State (20-8) is led by one of the winningest active coaches in Division I men?s tennis. Bill Richards, now in his 32nd season as a head coach, has the ninth-highest win total among active head men?s tennis coaches. He trails UK?s Emery, who holds down the eighth spot with over 500 career victories in 28 seasons.

Kentucky will host an NCAA regional for a fourth-consecutive season. UK emerged from the 2002 regional to make the NCAA Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight, but the Cats fell to Ohio State and TCU in the 2003 and 2004 regional finals, respectively.

Kentucky joins Florida, UCLA and Georgia as the only schools to host 2005 men?s and women?s NCAA tennis regionals.