Women’s Tennis Unveils 2017-18 Schedule
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Head Coach Carlos Drada and the Kentucky women’s tennis program officially announced the 2017-18 fall and spring schedules on Wednesday afternoon.
Of Kentucky’s 25 spring dual opponents, 17 finished 2017 ranked inside the Oracle/ITA Top 50 and 16 received bids to the 2017 NCAA Tournament. The league slate will once again prove to be quite challenging as well, as 13-of-14 SEC squads finished ranked in the top 50 last season.
Kentucky’s fall season will feature trips to Northwestern’s Wildcat Invitational (Sept. 29-Oct. 1), the Baylor Invitational (Oct. 6-8), ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships (Oct. 12-16) and Alabama’s Roberta Alison Fall Classic (Oct. 27-28). The Wildcats will also look to send athletes to the ITA/Riviera All-American Tennis Championships in Pacific Palisades, California (Sept. 30-Oct. 8) and the ITA National Fall Championships in Indian Wells, California (Nov. 2-5).
UK opens the spring slate in Coral Gables, Fla., at the Miami Spring Invite. Fans will be able to see the Wildcats in Lexington for the first time on Jan. 24, when UK hosts both Miami (OH) and Northern Kentucky in a doubleheader at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex.
The Wildcats will play host to a trio of 2017 NCAA Tournament teams in Northwestern, UCLA and NC State as part of ITA Kick-Off Weekend Jan. 26-27 before hitting the road for its first spring road contest against Ohio State on Feb. 1.
Kentucky continues its nonconference portion of the schedule with home contests against Baylor on Feb. 4 and a double-header with Arizona State and Eastern Kentucky on Feb. 23. UK also heads east to face a pair of Ivy League teams in Columbia (Feb. 17) and Princeton (Feb. 18).
The SEC schedule opens at home with UK facing Alabama and Auburn on March 2 and 4, respectively, before beginning a four-game road stretch vs. Arkansas (March 9), Missouri (March 11), Ole Miss (March 16) and Mississippi State (March 18). The Wildcats then host Georgia (March 23) and Tennessee (March 25) before traveling to Vanderbilt on March 31.
UK will break from conference action on April 2 to host a doubleheader with Dayton and Lipscomb. For its final home stand, Kentucky will welcome LSU on April 5 before taking on Texas A&M on April 7 for Senior Day.
The final road swing of the regular season will begin April 12 against defending NCAA Champion Florida before heading to South Carolina April 14. Tennessee will host the 2018 SEC Tournament, which runs from April 18-22 in Knoxville.
The complete 2017-18 schedule can be found here.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s tennis program, follow @UKWomensTennis on Twitter and Instagram, on Facebook at Facebook.com/UKWomensTennis and on the web at UKathletics.com.
