Kentucky men’s tennis (11-7, 3-4 SEC), bounced back  against No. 18 Auburn (14-3, 4-2 SEC), winning 5-2. The Wildcats bounced back with this win after suffering two consecutive losses to Alabama and Arkansas.

Kentucky continued to set the tone early with the taking of the important doubles point. Winning the doubles point is something Kentucky has been good at all season and particularly lately. The Wildcat have taken the doubles point in its last four matches.

No. 19 Jack Loutit and Eli Stephenson dominated in their top 25 matchup against Billy Blaydes and Freddy Blaydes by a score of 6-1. Auburn evened up the doubles score as Nicholas Heng and Joey Phillips took down Martin Breysach and Charlie Cosnet by a score of 6-4. With the doubles point at stake and up for grabs Mikael Arsenault and Matt Rankin took down Auburn’s Jake Kennedy and Hamza Nasridinov to give Kentucky a 1-0 lead after doubles concluded.

Singles started and Auburn got off to a quick start. Auburn’s Heng took down Kentucky’s Jaden Weekes in straight sets to give Auburn a little bit of momentum as singles play started.

Kentucky’s star Stephenson took down Auburn’s Nasridinov in a ranked matchup. Stephenson took the first pretty handily by a score of 6-3. Nasridinov was not going to go down without a fight, winning the second set with a 7-6 ( 7-5) tiebreak. For some players this may have phased them, but not Stephenson as he won the final set easily 6-2.

The match of the day was between Mikael and Manell Lazaro. Lazaro took the first set 7-5. It looked like Lazaro may run away with it as he took an early lead in the second set as well. It looked like Arsenault’s emotions were getting the best of him as his game was kinda unraveling. He managed to gather himself to win the next two sets in dramatic fashion to seal the point for Kentucky.

To seal the win for Kentucky, Loutit  took down Blaydes in 3 sets. After losing the first set 6-4, Loutit won the next two in dominant fashion. He won the second set 6-3 and secured the final set 6-0 not allowing Blaydes to take a single game off of him.