McCartney Kessler struggled to find her game early this season.
She dropped four of her first six singles matches while stumbling in doubles play by losing four straight earlier this season.
Kessler entered conference play with momentum, winning her past three matches, including one over Georgia’s No. 16 Marta Gonzalez. She hopes to keep the intensity alive when the Florida women’s tennis team plays its first of four matches on the road against No. 23 Kentucky on Friday.
The No. 31 Gators (7-6, 4-2 SEC) travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to take on the Wildcats after falling to No. 2 Georgia and bouncing back to defeat then-No. 16 Tennessee this past weekend at the Ring Tennis Complex.
Florida enters the match with three players ranked in the ITA Top 125 with No. 16 Ida Jarlskog, No. 38 Kessler and No. 67 Victoria Emma. The Wildcats, on the other hand, have just one ranked player in No. 35 Justina Mikulskyte.
Kentucky (14-3, 4-2 SEC) remains undefeated in nine home matches, including victories over Arkansas and Missouri — two teams the Gators defeated on the road.
The Wildcats pose a threat to Florida in capturing the doubles point. The Gators failed to win the point in their past two matches and will have to face No. 14-ranked pair Akvile Parazinskaite and Mikulskyte. Kentucky’s duo is 5-1 in conference play and ride a five-match unbeaten streak into Friday.
Florida’s main pairing of sophomores Emma and Kessler will have its hands full despite its 4-1 conference record in doubles play, while transfer duo Tsveta Dimitrova and Jarlskog enter with four conference victories.
The Wildcats and Florida are currently in a three-way tie for fourth place in the SEC with Texas A&M and trail Georgia, South Carolina and Vanderbilt, a team the Gators will see on Sunday in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Gators enter on an eight-match win streak over Kentucky and have a 42-2 overall record since the series first started in 1983.
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The Gators women's tennis team enters Friday's matchup against Kentucky with three ranked singles players.
