Feb. 3, 2009

LEXINGTON, Ky. – After a long double-header weekend, the No. 22 Wildcats (5-0 overall, 0-0 conference) remain at home to face the No. 32 Buckeyes (3-2, 0-0) in a mid-week tilt. Ohio State comes to Lexington Wed., Feb. 4 for a match at noon ET in the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex.

Kentucky has maintained a clean record after knocking off East Tennessee State, 6-1, and Eastern Kentucky, 6-1, on Friday, and Winthrop, 7-0, and Miami of Ohio, 5-2, on Sunday. 

The Buckeyes have won three of their five matches. They last saw action at the National Indoor Qualifier in Durham, N.C. OSU defeated No. 33 South Carolina 4-3 but then fell to No. 9 Duke, 4-2.

UK’s junior Christine Johnston came out of the weekend undefeated and is currently leading the Blue and White in singles with a 5-0 record. Sophomore Megan Broderick is the Cats’ only ranked singles player at No. 61. She went undefeated on Sunday and is currently 2-2 on the season.

The Kentucky freshmen are also stepping up their games posting a combined 10-1 singles record thus far. Caroline Lilley leads the rookie pack tallying four wins and no losses followed by Jennifer Stone’s 3-0 record. Both Lilley and Stone were able to help the Cats clinch matches this weekend. The newest members of Kentucky’s squad, Chanè Hines and Minnette Pienaar also contributed to the wins, posting three singles wins.

In doubles, Johnston and senior Carolina Escamilla are ranked at No. 42, and play together on court one. The top duo is 2-1 so far, only being defeated by another top-50 team.

Coach Drada has used five different line-ups for each of the team’s five matches as well as utilizing seven varying doubles pairs. Kentucky is 11-4 in doubles and 25-5 in singles despite the different line-ups.

Kentucky rules the all-time series between the Cats and Buckeyes, 11-1. The last time UK saw the Scarlet and Gray was in 2004 on March 10 when the Wildcats defeated Ohio State, 4-3.