Jomby's Journal: UK Men’s Tennis Still Undefeated in the SEC

After sweeping the SEC opening weekend last weekend on the road, defeating LSU 5-2 in Baton Rouge and No. 66 Arkansas 6-1 in Fayetteville, the Cats started 2-0 in conference play. Last Friday, the Wildcats won their biggest match year, beating No. 8 Texas A&M 4-0. After a deceiving start to the season with four losses and the team missing the National Indoor tournament for the first time in five years, the UK men’s tennis took a step up and started practicing harder, said volunteer coach Anthony Rossi. The coaching staff decided to make practices last longer and more intense. So yes, I have to say it sucks to wake up three times a week at 6 am to go workout before the tennis practice, but at some point you have to choose where you want to be. I for sure didn’t want to be in Lexington in mid-February when the best 16 teams in the country were all fighting against each other in Houston at the National Indoor. Our team had two solid weeks of practice with I believe 10 good practices in a row. I felt like the level of the team increased, but we had to prove it and play that level we knew we could have during a match. Last Friday, WE DID IT. The 22nd-ranked UK Men’s’ Tennis team beat No. 8 Texas A&M 4-0 in the best match the team played so far this year. With free pizza for all the people attending the event, the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center was packed and I was really happy that a lot of people showed up. It was the first I’ve seen that many people being so loud during the entire match and the crowd had a huge impact boosting our confidence during the match. It was really easy to get pumped for this match because sophomore Kevin Lai and I were playing the team ranked No. 1 in the country in doubles, Junior Ore and Jackson Withrow. We broke first to lead 6-4 but they broke us back right away to finally push us all the way to a tiebreaker. We did the work winning the tiebreaker 7-4. On court #2 Beck Pennington and Alejandro Gomez played a solid match beating the Aggies 8-5 to earn the double point for UK. [caption id="attachment_153650" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Kevin Lai and Tom Jomby defeated the No. 1 team in the nation[/caption] In singles, I was the first one to finish on court 1 with a 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 11 Harrison Adams. Since I lost to Adams last semester at the SEC fall tournament, head coach Cedric Kauffmann knew what I needed to do to be able to get my revenge. We worked on it during the week and I felt really great on the court playing with the game plan we created. I was winning and I could see that Beck winning on court 3 and Jerry winning on court 4, and I was like, 'Man, we’re going to do this!' Coach Rossi was making sure I was staying focused on my court and on my game, which can be difficult when you feel like your team is about to win. I also felt like the people pushing me in the crowd at 3-3 in the second set was a huge help as well. I ended up winning in straight sets, giving us a 2-0 lead overall in the match. Sophomore Beck Pennington, No. 99 in the country, won 6-3, 7-6 against No. 38 Jeremy Efferding for his best win of the year. “I was really excited to play against a really good opponent today in front of my family that drove all the way from Bowling Green KY,“ Pennington said. "We have been practicing so hard and we really want to win the SEC like two years ago. We have the chance to have a guy like Tom on the team that is one of the best players in the country, and Coach Kauffmann who was a top 200 professional player in the world. I mean we have everything we need to succeed. After this win I can’t be more proud of the team." Freshman Jerry Lopez came out clutch on court 4 as he knocked off Junior Ore 6-2, 7-6 to clinch the win for Kentucky. Jerry dominated the whole match, imposing his heavy ball and giving no opportunity for the Aggies to come back. [caption id="attachment_153653" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Freshman Jerry Lopez celebrating his third clinch in a row[/caption] Watch my celebration here. It's safe to say that was exciting! Coach Kauffmann was really proud of the team. "That's a great win for the boys today," he said after the match. “I thought us not going to the National Indoors got us really sad and disappointed and we had to make a choice. We had to continue to do the same things we were doing, or we had to take a step up. We decided we were going to step up the physicality in our practices and we aren't going to stop. This is just one win in the SEC. We will get back to work even harder." [caption id="attachment_153654" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Coaches Rossi and Kaufmann / Kevin Lai[/caption] Lai admitted that beating the No. 1 ranked doubles in the country tastes even better after the team won the match overall. "I look forward to next weekend and playing again against Mississippi State and Ole Miss," he said. “I now understand that we can compete against everybody in the country and I’m ready for some big things in the coming weeks." Kentucky is now 3-0 in the SEC and one of two undefeated teams in the conference, with the Georgia Bulldogs. The Cats will be back on the court Friday afternoon a 4 p.m against Mississippi and again on Sunday against Ole Miss at 1 pm.