April 15, 2015
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The 11th-seeded University of Kentucky men’s tennis team will kick off its 2015 Southeastern Conference Tournament on Thursday morning against the No. 6 seeded Florida Gators in College Station, Texas. The match has been moved up to a 10 a.m. ET start from a 1 p.m. ET start due to expected storms all throughout the afternoon in the College Station area.
This will be Kentucky’s second meeting with the Gators in less than a week, as the Wildcats and Florida met on Friday afternoon in Lexington, with the Gators advancing out of the Boone Tennis Center with a 4-1 win over the Wildcats.
Kentucky won the doubles point over the Gators as UK was aided by a great effort on courts two and three to clinch the 1-0 overall lead. On court two, sophomore Jerry Lopez teamed with fellow sophomore Nils Ellefsen to give UK the 6-4 win and the 1-0 lead in the doubles competition.
On court three, UK’s duo of freshman William Bushamuka and Trey Yates teamed up to give the Wildcats a 7-5 win on court three and clinched the 1-0 overall lead in the match for UK.
In singles, the Wildcats were able to collect two first-set victories, as William Bushamuka (6-0) on court three and Nils Ellefsen (7-6) on court five got out to good starts in the singles competition. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, those singles matches were unable to finish, as Florida got straight-sets singles wins on courts one, two, four and six to clinch the match, and a 4-1 win over the Wildcats.
Florida has won the last three meetings overall with the Wildcats, with UK’s last win over the Gators coming in the Sweet 16 of the 2011 NCAA Tournament. UK and Florida have not met in the SEC Tournament since the 2010 SEC Tournament Championship match, which Florida won, 4-0.
For more information on the Kentucky men’s tennis team, follow “UKMensTennis” on Twitter or “University of Kentucky men’s tennis team” on Facebook.
