Mikulskyte Set to Lead UK Women’s Tennis Past NCAA First Round on Graduation Day
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – In its sixth straight NCAA First Round appearance, the No. 29 University of Kentucky women’s tennis team will compete against DePaul at 11 a.m. ET on Friday in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The Wildcats are scheduled to compete on the outdoor courts of the University of Michigan Varsity Tennis Center pending the weather, and live scoring will be available here.
Kentucky is 18-8 overall this season, forming a 7-6 mark in the Southeastern Conference. The Wildcats advanced to the quarterfinals at the conference championships in April, after earning the sixth seed and a 4-1 win over Arkansas in the second round.
DePaul is 11-11 overall, but notched a 6-2 mark in the BIG EAST Conference. Meanwhile, the Blue Demons defeated top-ranked Xavier last week to earn the conference tournament title for the fourth time in the last six seasons.
The UK women’s tennis team is led by All-SEC First Team selection senior Justina Mikulskyte. Earning SEC Player of the Week twice this season, the Lithuania native is 13-5 overall in both singles and doubles on the No. 1 court. Mikulskyte, who is ranked No. 27 in the ITA/Oracle Top 125 National Singles Rankings, earned a bid to the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships for the first time in her career, hosted May 20-25 in Orlando, Florida.
Partnered with redshirt junior Akvile Paražinskaite , the No. 16-ranked upperclassmen duo have proven that they excel under pressure. The doubles team formed an 8-2 mark in the league and in the process, the duo composed an 8-0 record against ranked opponents. Meanwhile, Mikulskyte and Paražinskaite notched a win over the third-ranked doubles team in the nation and the reigning national doubles champions in Eden Richardson and Jessica Golovin of then-No. 19 LSU. Even more remarkable, the UK twosome defeated the best-ranked pairing in the nation in Mia Horvit and Gamarra Martins of then-No. 6 South Carolina.
Shining in singles this season, junior Diana Tkachenko has managed the best winning percentage on the team. Tkachenko is 16-4 (.800) in dual matches, playing as the consistent No. 5 competitor in UK’s singles lineup.
Last season at the national tournament, the Wildcats dropped its first-round draw to Kansas State on a dual match that came down to the wire, resulting in a 4-3 loss. The UK program has earned 26 NCAA Championships appearances, including this season, and own a 21-25 record on the national stage.
Kentucky and DePaul have met only once in program history, when the Blue Demons defeated the Wildcats in the NCAA First Round in 2015, 4-1. Should the UK women’s tennis team advance past DePaul on Friday, the team will meet the winner of No. 16 Michigan and UIC in the second round on Saturday, May 4 at 1 p.m. ET.
This season, the NCAA altered the tournament schedule adding a superregional round hosted one week following the first and second rounds and one week ahead of the NCAA Championships May 16-21 in Orlando, Florida, which will feature the top-eight teams.
2019 First and Second Round Schedule
Varsity Tennis Center – Ann Arbor, Mich.
First Round – Friday, May 3
No. 29 Kentucky vs. DePaul – 11 a.m.
No. 16 Michigan vs. UIC – 2 p.m.
Second Round – Saturday, May 4
Winner game 1 vs. winner game 2 – 1 p.m.
For more on Kentucky women’s tennis, follow @UKWomensTennis on Twitter and Instagram, Kentucky Women’s Tennis on Facebook, or on the web at UKathletics.com.
