Lexington, Ky. ? The No. 39 Kentucky men?s tennis team (5-3) will open its Southeastern Conference slate this weekend when it hits the road to take on Auburn and Alabama. The Cats? match against the No. 40 Tigers is scheduled to begin Friday at 2:30 p.m. EST at the Luther Young Tennis Complex in Auburn, Ala. UK will then travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to take on the 53rd-ranked Crimson Tide on Sunday at 2 p.m. EST.

Kentucky begins SEC play following a 6-1 victory on Tuesday at home against Tennessee Tech. Senior Alex Hume set the tone for the Cats playing at the No. 1 singles spot. The Alexandria, Va., native tied his career-best nine match winning streak by sweeping the Eagles? Shunsuke Shimizu 6-3, 6-4. Overall, UK won seven of the nine matches played against Tennessee Tech.

Auburn will enter Friday?s match with a 6-2 record after dropping its last match to No. 22 Georgia Tech. The Tigers currently have one ranked singles player and one ranked doubles team. The Tigers? lone ranked singles competitor is Robbert Lathouwers at No. 83. The 6-10 junior is 11-1 overall and undefeated (7-0) during the dual-match season. Lathouwers also teams with Lukas Marsoun to be the 57th-ranked doubles team.

After beginning the dual-match season winning three straight, the Crimson Tide have now dropped their last three matches. Junior Joseph Jung leads the Tide with a perfect 6-0 record during dual-match play. The nation?s No. 58 ranked player has won all six of his matches playing at the No. 1 spot in the lineup.

?This will be a big weekend for us opening conference play on the road against two ranked teams,? head coach Dennis Emery said. ?We are looking forward to a real tough battle tomorrow at Auburn. Auburn was a preseason top-20 team who should have one of their top players (Alex Schweizer) back in action and he can be a real difference maker.?

Throughout the weekend, fans can check uathletics.com for complete recaps of both matches and links to live stats.