Kentucky Women’s Tennis Faces Challenging SEC Road Trip

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky women’s tennis team (8-6, 0-5 SEC) is set to continue Southeastern Conference play with a challenging road trip, facing No. 23 Florida (8-3, 2-2 SEC) on Thursday at 5 p.m. ET and No. 3 Auburn (21-1, 4-0 SEC) on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.

The Wildcats are coming off a pair of close losses at home. They fell to No. 71 Arkansas 4-3 on Friday, and were defeated by No. 19 Oklahoma 4-0 on Sunday at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex.

Wildcats in the Rankings

Kentucky currently has two players ranked in the latest ITA standings: Julia Zhu at No. 112 and Zoe Hammond at No. 116.

Scouting the Opponents

No. 23 Florida

Kentucky will first travel to Gainesville to face the Florida Gators. Florida is 8-3 overall and 2-2 in SEC play. They recently split a weekend series, defeating No. 30 Ole Miss but losing to No. 4 LSU.

The Gators boast a strong lineup of ranked singles players, including Gabia Paskauskas (No. 26), Nikola Daubnerova (No. 71), Valery Gynina (No. 76), Emily Seibold (No. 84), and India Houghton (No. 103). Daubnerova and Xinyi Nong are ranked No. 19 in doubles.

No. 3 Auburn

The Wildcats will then travel to Auburn to seize on the No. 3 ranked Tigers. Auburn is 21-1 overall and a perfect 4-0 in conference play, having recently secured wins over both No. 30 Ole Miss and No. 4 LSU on the road.

Auburn’s ranked singles players include Ashton Bowers (No. 27), Ava Esposito (No. 31), DJ Bennett (No. 33), Ekaterina Khayrutdinova (No. 50), Angella Okutoyi (No. 91), and Alice Battesti (No. 119).

Looking for First SEC Win

Kentucky is still searching for its first SEC win of the season and will have the opportunity to earn a significant victory against two top-25 opponents on this road trip.

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