The No. 18-ranked UK men’s tennis team traveled to Athens, Georgia, on Sunday to visit the No. 11-ranked Georgia Bulldogs for a heavily weighted tennis match.

Sunday’s match was a disappointment for the Cats, as Georgia handed them a 6-1 loss. Standout freshman Ryotaro Matsumura landed the lone victory for the Cats. With his 14th singles victory, he defeated Georgia’s 34th ranked Wayne Montgomery.

Georgia, 12-3 on the season and a perfect 6-0 in SEC competition, swept the two doubles matches with the third going unfinished. UK fell to 4-3 in the SEC and 14-5 overall.

The Bulldogs stopped the three-game winning streak UK built and halted any momentum the Cats had coming into Sunday’s match.

In the first singles competition, Georgia’s No. 35-ranked Austin Smith defeated UK’s No. 27-ranked William Bushamuka 6-3, 7-5.

After the big win for Matsumura, the Cats lost four straight matches to the Bulldogs.

The third match went to Paul Oosterbaan (UGA) when he defeated Nils Ellefsen (UK) 7-5, 6-2, and the fourth match going to No. 120-ranked Walker Duncan (UGA) as he beat Trey Yates (UK) 7-6, (7-4), 6-3.

The fifth match winner was Jan Zielinski (UGA) over Enzo Wallart (UK) 5-7, 6-3, 1-0. The sixth and final match went to Nick Wood (UGA) as he topped Jake Stefanik (UK) 6-4, 6-2.

Doubles competition was also a down part of the day for the Cats as the first match went to Georgia’s No. 5-ranked duo Smith and Ben Wagland over UK’s Wallart and Ellefsen 6-3.

The second match had the same result with Georgia’s No. 58-ranked duo Oosterbaan and Zielinski defeated UK’s Bushamuka and Gus Benson 6-1.

The third match of doubles between Bulldogs’ Montgomery and Emil Reinberg and the Cats’ Matsumura and Austin Hussey went unfinished.

After a poor match on Sunday, the Cats look to bounce back against the University of Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Friday.

After the Tennessee match the Cats will return to Lexington for a four-game home stretch.

The home matches will feature two non-conference opponents in Ohio State and Xavier, and two SEC opponents in Texas A&M and LSU.

Texas A&M and Ohio State will be two tough challenges for the Cats, as both are among the ten best teams in the nation.