No. 27 Kentucky Men's Tennis to Begin SEC Tournament Play
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 27 Kentucky men’s tennis team begins the postseason on Thursday in the second round of the Southeastern Conference men’s tennis tournament. UK, the eight seed, will face No. 9 seed Tennessee at 3 p.m. ET at the Barkdale Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The SEC Tournament is hosted by the University of Tennessee and will take place April 26-30, beginning with 13-seed Alabama facing 12-seed Vanderbilt on Wednesday. Extensive coverage of the tournament can be found at UTSports.com gameday central here.
Kentucky opened SEC play against Tennessee in March at the Boone Indoor Tennis Center in Lexington and swept the Vols, 4-0. After taking the doubles point, Ryo Matsumura took down Luis Valero, Beck Pennington beat Scott Jones, and Nils Ellefsen defeated Jack Schipanski to give UK its first SEC win of the season.
UK sits at No. 27 in the team rankings with a 14-11 record overall and a 5-7 record in the SEC. Kentucky has three individuals ranked in the latest Oracle ITA rankings. Will Bushamuka is the highest ranked Wildcat at No. 16, while Ryo Matsumura comes in at No. 69. Trey Yates appears in the rankings for the first time this season at No. 116. In doubles, Pennington and Enzo Wallart come in at No. 28.
Tennessee is ranked No. 47 in the latest ITA rankings as a squad. Timo Stodder is the only ranked singles player for the Volunteers at No. 32. In doubles, Luis Valero and Jack Schipanski sit at No. 44, while Valero teams up Timo Stodder for a No. 52 ranking.
UT enters the league tournament at 13-14 and 3-9 in SEC play. Tennessee has league wins over LSU, Alabama and Ole Miss and finished the regular season with a three-match winning streak after beating Bama, Charlotte and LSU.
The winner of the Kentucky/Tennessee match will face the No. 1 seed Texas A&M on Friday at 3 p.m. ET. UK dropped a heartbreaker to Texas A&M on the road earlier in the season. The full bracket can be found here.
For more information on the Kentucky men’s tennis team, follow @UKMensTennis on Twitter or Kentucky Men’s Tennis Team on Facebook.
