Jan. 18, 2014

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 9 University of Kentucky men’s tennis team will travel to Cary, N.C., on Sunday afternoon to compete in the country’s first top-10 match of the 2014 season, as the Wildcats will face the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils at 1:00 p.m. ET.

“We had a good start yesterday in the two wins against Dayton and Eastern Kentucky,” UK head coach Cedric Kauffmann said. “We know that Duke is one of the best teams in the country, and we are really going to find out how tough we are on the road tomorrow afternoon.” 

The Blue Devils (0-1, 0-0 ACC) knocked the Wildcats out of the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16 a year ago, taking four singles matches to knock off the Wildcats 4-2 in Champaign, Ill. 

Kentucky (2-0, 0-0 SEC) started its season strong Friday afternoon, picking up two wins in its first matches of the season against Dayton and Eastern Kentucky at the Hilary J. Boone Varsity Tennis Center in Lexington, Ky. Kentucky swept all 14 points on Friday and only dropped one set in all 12 singles matches. Of the 13 players that make up the roster,  an impressive 10 players competed Friday for the Wildcats.

Duke fell to Elon University on Friday afternoon in Durham, as the Blue Devils dropped the doubles point and lost 4-3 in a tiebreak on court four to the Phoenix to drop to 0-1 on the season.

Sunday’s matchup in North Carolina marks the first time in the 2014 season that two teams in the top 10 of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s rankings will be facing off.

GoDuke.com will be offering free live stats, as well as video by subscription.

For continuing coverage of UK men’s tennis, log on to UKathletics.com.