The University of Kentucky men?s tennis team travels to Baton Rouge, La., for the SEC Championships beginning Thursday.
The first round match-up for the No. 56 Wildcats seeded 10th is a date with No. 29 Auburn, seeded seventh in the SEC tournament.
The two teams opened SEC action against one another in the early part of the season. In March then- No. 37 Auburn prevailed with five wins in singles action to overcome then-No. 38 Kentucky, in the first night of Southeastern Conference action.
Kentucky got things off to a fast start taking the doubles point from Auburn, but the Tigers would roll to five singles wins to earn the victory.
UK sophomore Bruno Agostinelli paces the Wildcats in singles with his second season in a row of 20 or more wins. The second-year player was tabbed as a member of the second team All-SEC on Wednesday. He will take with him an ITA rating of No. 83.
Senior Peter Bjork and junior Marcus Sundh have faced some tough adversity throughout the season, but have both enjoyed outstanding seasons playing in the No. 2 and No. 3 singles slots, respectively. Sundh leads the team in dual-match competition with a 16-9 record, while Bjork paced the doubles action with a 12-9 mark. Both players lead the team with four conference victories.
After finishing the season with four out-of-five wins, the Tigers jumped five spots to 29th; the highest ranking for Auburn this season. In singles rankings, senior Robbert Lathouwers improved to 38th, while classmate Alex Schweizer dropped to 57th. The pair also finds themselves 44th in the doubles rankings.
Kentucky has never won a match-up with Auburn in the SEC Tournament, having a 0-3 record against the Tigers. The last time the two teams faced each other at the conference meet was 2002 in the second round.
If Kentucky should prevail, they will then face the second seeded Ole Miss Rebels in the second round on Friday. Live stats are available through LSU?s website at www.lsusports.com. First serve with Auburn is slated to begin at 11 a.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
