Kentucky women?s tennis begins its season under first-year head coach Carlos Drada at the St. Mary?s Classic hosted by the University of Tennessee.

The defending SEC champions will face tough competition from a field that includes Purdue, Rice, Furman, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Wake Forest. Five of those teams competed in the NCAA tournament and eight schools participating in Knoxville finished in the top-50 of the final NCAA rankings.

?I think we are excited for our first tournament,? Drada said. ?We are eager to start competing and start improving.?

The Wildcats are looking to continue the success of last season where they won the most matches in school history with 26, captured the school?s first SEC title and made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships.

Kentucky returns six players from last year?s squad, who will all be competing in this weekend?s tournament.

Melbourne, Austraila, native junior Kim Coventry leads the Cats after winning 35 matches last season and earning the ITA?s No. 15 preseason ranking.

Joining Coventry is junior Joelle Schwenk. Individually, Schwenk is the 118th-ranked player, but also teams with Coventry to be the No. 9 doubles tandem in the country.

Also competing this weekend is senior Danielle Petrisko, along with juniors Lara Maurer, Liis Sober, and Caroline Winebrenner. All will play singles, while Petrisko teams with Maurer and Sober will team with Winebrenner in doubles action.

The Wildcats will return to action September 30 at the UK Fall Invitational at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex.