March 27, 2010

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The ninth-ranked University of Kentucky men’s tennis team looks to add to an already impressive list of accomplishments this season when it heads to No. 37 Alabama with a chance to claim head coach Dennis Emery’s 500th win at Kentucky. The match is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. ET Sunday.

Emery, who is coaching his 28th year of tennis at Kentucky, has an all-time record of 586-386 in 33 seasons as a head coach. The legendary coach is 499-320 as the Wildcats head man. Emery spent five seasons at Austin Peay University before coming to Kentucky. A 1988 finalist for National Coach of the Year, Emery recorded his all-time 500th win back in the 2005 season with a victory over Murray State.

Kentucky (13-6, 3-2 SEC) has won two straight matches and five out of its last seven heading into Sunday. UK is led by sophomores Eric Quigley and Alex Musialek in singles play and Quigley and junior Brad Cox in doubles. Quigley and Musialek sit in the top 40 of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings with Quigley ranked 10th and Musialek ranked 37th in singles. Quigley and doubles partner Cox are ranked 15th in the latest doubles rankings.

Alabama (8-9, 1-4 SEC) comes into the match having lost four of its last six matches. The Crimson Tide is fresh off a 5-2 victory over Southern Miss Friday night. Alabama is led by its lone ranked singles player in senior No. 47 Saketh Myneni. The Crimson Tide does not have a ranked doubles team.

Last year, the Wildcats and Crimson Tide only played one match with UK falling to No. 17 Alabama 4-3 in Lexington. Kentucky defeated Alabama 5-2 the last time the two schools played in Tuscaloosa.