Lady Bulldog Tennis To Open Play In SEC Championship
MSU (5-13, 1-10 SEC) closed out the season on the road last weekend at in-state rival Mississippi in a 4-1 loss to the Lady Rebs. Climbing up the ranks this week, Lady Bulldog sophomore Martina Banikova moved from No. 71 to No. 53 in the latest national rankings, released Tuesday by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
Kentucky (17-6, 6-5 SEC), ranked 31st in the country, enters this weekend after closing out the regular season by suffering a 6-1 loss to No. 15 Vanderbilt this past weekend. UK's tandem of Kim Coventry and Joelle Schwenk enter the contest with a national ranking of ninth in doubles to lead the Lady Wildcats.
"We know that playing Kentucky is going to be a tough match, especially with them being the host team," said MSU head coach Tracy Lane. "I feel that we learned a lot from our prior match with them so hopefully we can prevent from making some of the same mistakes."
In the prior match this season, played March 23 in Lexington, UK took a 6-1 decision from MSU. State's lone win in the match was provided by Banikova, who took a three-set win against Coventry at the top spot in the lineup.