Kentucky men’s tennis (16-10, 7-7 SEC) keeps its perfect home record this season taking down Oklahoma and Arkansas in final regular season matches of the season.
Up first, Kentucky claimed a strong home victory over Oklahoma with a final score of 4-1.
“We’ve been playing great, I’m proud of our progress,” Assistant Coach Carey Rubin said. “Now it’s time to keep pushing and do everything we can to keep winning.”
The Wildcats did just that by picking up the upset win over the Sooners, but Oklahoma took the first lead of the day. Antoine Ghibaudo and Jaden Weekes picked up the lone Kentucky doubles win 6-2.
The No. 18 team of Eli Stephenson and Jack Loutit couldn’t get the job done, going down to the No. 26 ranked team of Oscar Lacidas and Bruno Nhaven. Martin Breysach and Charlelie Cosnet followed, taking a close 7-5 loss against Asahi Harazaki and Alejandro Melero.
Oklahoma would head into the singles match with a 1-0 lead.
Despite coming in down a point, Kentucky showed up ready to play going on an impressive run in the singles matches. No. 93 Weekes started the hot streak picking up a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Orel Kimhi.
No. 58 Ghibaudo continued the great singles play taking down No. 78 Lacidas 6-2, 6-3 in an impressive showing. Matt Rankin followed picking up the win in a thriller over Harazaki. Rankin took the first set in a back-and-forth battle 7-6 (6), 6-2 having a dominant second set.
With the win, Kentucky took a 3-1 lead over the Sooners putting them a win away from the upset.
Cosnet sealed the deal for the Wildcats in a wicked contest against Jordan Hasson. Cosnet took the first set with ease, winning 6-0, Hasson battled back taking the second set 7-6 (7). Cosnet got his groove back taking the third set 6-2 putting the nail in the coffin for the Sooners.
Coming off the strong victory, Kentucky was set to face off the Razorbacks looking to pick up a win in its last regular season matchup before heading to the SEC Tournament.
“It is important, we can pretend like it isn’t, but I think everybody knows it’s important,” Head Coach Cedric Kauffman said. “We’re heading into the hardest tournament in college tennis so getting the win today and keeping our momentum and energy going is very important.”
The Wildcats continued their dominance at home starting with Loutit and Stephenson taking down the No. 19 team of Jakub Vrba and Connor Smillie in dominant showing picking up the 6-1 win.
Ghibaudo and Weekes kept it going for Kentucky, picking up an impressive 6-2 victory over Lukas Palovic and Brendan Boland. Cosnet and Breysach’s match would go unfinished at 5-5 with Kentucky having a 1-0 lead going into singles.
No. 50 Loutit started off the dominance for Kentucky taking down Božo Barun 6-3, 6-2 extending the Wildcats lead to 2-0. Weekes continued his amazing weekend showing taking down Vrba 6-1, 7-5 leaving Kentucky one point away from a clean sweep.
Cosnet lost the first set 6-1 against Benni Emesz before going on an unstoppable tear, taking the second set 6-2 and the third 6-4. With the win from Cosnet, the Wildcats secured the clean sweep at home.
“We’ve grabbed some momentum, heading into the postseason we definitely want to keep that going,” Assistant Head Coach Matthew Gordon said. “We’ve been hard to beat at home, haven’t lost yet so we need to keep that momentum going heading to South Carolina next week.”
With its impressive season, Kentucky has earned the No. 9 seed in the SEC tournament, earning itself a first-round bye. Kentucky will be looking to defend its back-to-back SEC Championships.
Kentucky will be back in action Thursday, April 17, at 2 p.m. ET facing off with the No. 8 seed Auburn in the second round of the tournament. The tournament will be held at the Carolina Tennis Center in Columbia, South Carolina.
