No. 22 Kentucky Welcomes No. 23 Vanderbilt for Senior Day
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 22 Kentucky (13-8, 6-3 SEC) men’s tennis team will host No. 23 Vanderbilt (16-5, 6-3 SEC) for Senior Day on Sunday at 1 p.m. Kentucky will honor its four seniors – Gus Benson, Will Bushamuka, Jake Stefanik and Trey Yates – before the match begins.
Benson has made his mark in doubles this year, with 11 wins in doubles this season. He and Cesar Bourgois have worked their way up to No. 41 in the nation, and together they have seven wins on the No. 1 court, including a win over the No. 15 duo from Florida.
Bushamuka is a 2017 All-American, two-time All-SEC team member, and the Oracle ITA Player to Watch in 2016. Bushamuka advanced to the round-of-16 of the NCAA Singles Tournament last season, and worked his way up to No. 14 that season. This season, Bushamuka is ranked No. 54 and has three ranked wins, including a victory over No. 13 Giovanni Oradini.
Stefanik has 50 total wins for Kentucky, and 15 over four courts in spring singles play. His best season came as a sophomore, where he was 8-6 during the spring campaign. In the fall of that year, he and Austin Hussey won the fall doubles title at the Louisville Invitational.
Trey Yates is currently ranked No. 115 in the country. Yates has at least 11 spring wins every season, and won a career best 13 as a sophomore. Yates, along with the rest of the seniors, have been to two NCAA Tournaments, and Yates got a win against Virginia Tech as a sophomore.
Kentucky had a nonconference match on Wednesday, when UK lost a tight match to No. 3 Ohio State. In the match, Ryo Matsumura took down No. 3 Mikael Torpegaard, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-4.
Vanderbilt is 16-5 and 6-3 in the SEC. Vandy is coming off a 1-1 weekend, where they fell to Texas A&M, 4-3 and took down LSU, 7-0. Vanderbilt has three wins over ranked opponents this season. As a team, it’s singles players are 9-11 against ranked opponents. Cameron Klinger has the most ranked wins on the team at four.
Kentucky will continue SEC play on Friday when they face Tennessee at 6 p.m. ET.
For more information on the Kentucky men’s tennis team, follow @UKMensTennis on Twitter or Kentucky Men’s Tennis Team on Facebook.
