This Week’s Matches
The No. 30 Kentucky women’s tennis team travels to the state of Florida this week for a pair of matches against teams from the sunshine state. On Thurs., the Cats will take on 15th-ranked Miami in Coral Cables, Fla. The match is slated to begin at noon EST. Kentucky will then travel Sat. to Tampa to take on the 44th-ranked South Florida Bulls at 11 a.m. EST.
Cats in the Rankings
Kentucky (6-4, 0-0 SEC) is currently ranked 30th in the country. UK reached its highest ranking of the year on Jan. 31 at No. 12. The Cats’ lone ranked singles player is junior Kim Coventry. The Melbourne, Australia, native has jumped from the No. 53 spot in the rankings up to No. 22. This climb up the charts coincides with Coventry?s recent four-match winning streak against ranked opponents. After beating Purdue?s Hala Sufi on Sunday, Coventry had consecutively beaten the No. 12, No. 7, No. 31 and No. 29 players in the nation. Coventry also teams with junior Joelle Schwenk to be the 35th-ranked doubles team.
History
Thursday will mark the eighth all-time meeting between the Cats and the Hurricanes. UK holds a 4-3 advantage in the series match up. Saturday?s contest will mark the third time Kentucky and South Florida have met. The schools have split their two previous contests.
Scouting the Opponents
The Hurricanes (4-3) are coming off a 7-0 win over Central Florida on Feb. 18. Miami is 2-3 on the season against ranked opponents with wins against No. 41 FIU and No. 51 Wisconsin. Miami enters Thursday’s match with a pair of ranked singles players in No. 13 Audra Cohen and 84th-ranked Melissa Applebaum. The Bulls have begun dual match season winning three of their first four and are currently ranked 44th. South Florida features three ranked players (No. 38 Courtney Vernon, No. 53 Neyssa Etienne and No. 69 Liz Cruz).
Facing Nothing but the Best
Eight of the Cats? first 10 opponents are currently ranked in the top-65 in the nation. At the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in February UK faced three teams in the top-10 (No. 1 Stanford, No. 5 Georgia Tech and No. 6 Northwestern).
Next Time Out
On Fri., Mar. 3, Kentucky will return home to the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center to open the Southeastern Conference portion of their schedule against Auburn. The Cats will wrap up their two-match home stand on Sun., Mar. 5, against Alabama.
