Feb. 1, 2014

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 13 University of Kentucky men’s tennis team will travel to South Bend, Ind., on Sunday afternoon to face off against the No. 22 University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish at 1 p.m. ET in a rematch of last weekend’s Lexington Regional final.

Last weekend, Kentucky and Notre Dame played a match that exceeded four hours, as the then-No. 29 Irish fended off a furious comeback from the Wildcats to defeat then-No. 8 Kentucky to advance to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s National Team Indoor finals in February.

The loss to the Irish last weekend was Kentucky’s first of the season, as the Wildcats were previously 5-0 entering the match. Since the match last weekend, UK fell to No. 13 in the polls, with Notre Dame climbing seven spots, up to No. 22 nationally.

Both Notre Dame and Kentucky have yet to play a match since the ITA Kick-Off Weekend last weekend in Lexington.

In last weekend’s match, Kentucky dropped the doubles point, and the singles match on court four to go down 0-2 early. Wins by senior Tom Jomby and Alejandro Gomez successively squared the match up at 2-2, before the Fighting Irish recaptured the lead at 3-2 with a three-set win on court two. Another senior. Grant Roberts delivered a 6-0, 6-3 win on court five for UK to force the match to come down to court six.

On court six, senior Ryuji Hirooka was down a set, before winning a second-set tiebreaker and forcing a decisive third set on the sixth court. Hirooka went up a single break at 3-1 before his opponent clinched the Fighting Irish’s ticket to Houston by winning five of the final six games in the set.

Kentucky and Notre Dame will begin at 1 p.m. ET in South Bend.

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