Women’s Tennis Central: #16 Tennessee at #17 Vanderbilt, #53 Kentucky

Looking to continue its strong stretch of tennis, the No. 16-ranked Tennessee women’s tennis team takes to the road for the first time during the conference season, playing No. 17 Vanderbilt on Friday at 4 p.m. ET in Nashville and Kentucky on Sunday at Noon ET in Lexington.

The Lady Vols (9-2, 2-0 SEC) come off a spotless start to Southeastern Conference play where they swept Missouri, 4-0, in the league opener before topping Arkansas, 6-1, on Sunday. Sunday’s victory over the Razorbacks marked a milestone win for the program, being the 750^th in Tennessee history.

Elza Tomase was terrific last weekend in singles, earning a pair of ranked victories at the No. 2 position, defeating #117 Laura Masic of Mizzou, 6-1, 6-4, before besting #74 Carolina Gomez of Arkansas, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Fans can tune into Friday’s match against Vanderbilt HERE, with live stats for the match found HERE.

A PEEK AT THE CHARTS

On Tuesday, the ITA updated its individual rankings. Below are each team’s ranked singles and doubles players.

Tennessee Lady Volunteers

Singles

#31 Rebeka Mertena

#37 Daria Kuczer

#57 Elza Tomase

Doubles

#55 Esther Adeshina/Rebeka Mertena

Vanderbilt Commodores

Singles

#48 Celia-Belle Mohr

#60 Bridget Stammel

#t80 Anna Ross

#111 Holly Staff

#t113 Anessa Lee

Doubles

#68 Anessa Lee/Celia-Belle Mohr

KENTUCKY WILDCATS

Singles

#74 Florencia Urrutia

HEAD COACH ALISON OJEDA

“Our squad is improving each time we get out on the court and compete. This weekend will tell us a lot as we get deeper and deeper into SEC play. We know both Vanderbilt and Kentucky well and we can expect them to compete for every single point at a high level. Now, we are just ready as a team to go out and play.”

SCOUTING THE COMMODORES

Vanderbilt (8-3, 2-0 SEC) enters the weekend on a four-match win streak dating back to Feb 17. They have lost just three matches this year, all coming at the ITA National Indoor Championships in Seattle, Washington. The Dores own ranked victories over NC State on the road and UCF at home. VU beat Ole Miss and Mississippi State in Nashville to kickoff SEC play last week.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS

Kentucky (6-4, 1-1 SEC) holds the No. 53 team ranking heading into the weekend and picked up a victory over Mississippi State to open SEC play last Friday. The Cats hold just two wins over Power Five teams thus far, one being MSU and the other coming against Purdue on the road, 4-3.

Kentucky will host Georgia on Friday at Noon before taking on the Lady…