No. 17 Kentucky Returns Home to Face Auburn and Mississippi State

 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 17 Kentucky men’s tennis team will continue Southeastern Conference play this week when UK faces Auburn and No. 21 Mississippi State. UK will face the Tigers on Thursday at 1 p.m. and MSU on Saturday at noon at the Boone Tennis Center.  

Last weekend, the Wildcats split matches against LSU and Texas A&M. The Cats started the weekend by taking down LSU, 5-2, and fell to the Aggies, 4-3, to wrap up the weekend. In the win over LSU, sophomore No. 25 Ryo Matsumura earned a ranked win over No. 43 Justin Butsch, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Against TAMU, junior No. 28 Will Bushamuka earned a top-10 victory over No. 8 Arthur Rinderknech, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3). 

Auburn is 9-6 overall and 1-1 in the league after picking up its first SEC win of the season last Saturday over Alabama, 6-1. The Tigers have one singles ranked player, No. 64 Maxime Hinnisdaels. On the doubles side, Hinnisdaels and Conner Huertas come in at No. 9. Auburn features nonconference wins over UCF, Princeton and Virginia Tech. 

Mississippi State will venture to Lexington in the middle of a three-game road swing, and will face No. 34 Vanderbilt before heading north. MSU is currently 11-3 and a perfect 2-0 in the SEC. Last time out, the Bulldogs beat Alabama, 5-2, at home. Nuno Borges is the only ranked individual for MSU, and he is ranked No. 4.

The Cats have three individuals currently ranked in the top-30, and three ranked in the latest ITA poll. Matsumura sits at No. 25, while Bushamuka is ranked No. 28. Senior Nils Ellefsen comes in at No. 75. On the doubles side, the duo of Beck Pennington and Enzo Wallart are ranked No. 70, while the squad comes in at No. 17. 

For more information on the Kentucky men’s tennis team, follow @UKMensTennis on Twitter or Kentucky Men’s Tennis Team on Facebook.