Gary Henderson



Michael Williams



Austin Cousino

With his team's NCAA Tournament life on the line against Indiana, the last place Dennis Emery wanted Eric Quigley was on the sidelines.

Or so he thought.

Kentucky's all-time wins leader spent more time as a cheerleader than on the court, posting singles and doubles victories well before any of his teammates finished their own matches. After prevailing 8-3 alongside partner Panav Jha in doubles, he breezed through a never-in-doubt singles match, 6-1, 6-0, a score that somehow didn't even do his performance justice.

Quigley wasted no time moving to support his teammates, and he was greeted by a sight he could hardly believe.

"I walked off the court and I saw Anthony Rossi on court three was like two-all, two-one and I was like, 'That can't be right,' Quigley said. "But it was."

With Quigley anchoring the lineup, the No. 6 Wildcats (27-5) dispatched the visiting Hoosiers to advance to their third Sweet 16 in a row, an achievement not lost on anyone involved.

"He played fantastic in singles and doubles and I think it's a real credit for him," Emery said. "It's a huge match for us. This is the third straight year we've gone to the Sweet 16. They understand all that that means."

With each successive match potentially being the last of Quigley's decorated career, it would be understandable if he placed an inordinate amount of pressure on himself to play well. Instead, he summarily dismissed Isade Juneau, continuing his steak of singles matches without a loss that dates to March 19.

"You have a tendency to maybe think he's going to play a little tight," Emery said. "Just the opposite. He really turned it loose. Maybe not necessarily a great matchup for him at (court) one, but he really took care of business."

Afterwards Quigley, currently ranked third nationally as a singles player, confirmed what everyone who watched him play on Saturday already knew: that he played very well, even by his lofty standards.

"I'm pretty pleased with how I played in singles and doubles today," Quigley said. "It was a quick match, but there's just some days you feel like you can't do anything wrong. I feel like today is one of those days."

In two NCAA Tournament singles matches thus far, Quigley is yet to lose a set, dropping just four games in the process. That comes in stark contrast to last year's tournament run, when UK advanced to the Elite Eight in spite of Quigley losing three times in four singles matches.

Clearly, Quigley has improved his game since then, but he credits reaching a new level of play to his teammates as much anything else. With a deeper lineup and improvement in doubles, Quigley doesn't go into his matches thinking winning or losing will come down to how he fares.

"I really had a good season and it's also really good knowing we're so deep this year one through six," Quigley said. "It really doesn't matter if I win or lose, we can get four other points for sure. I think that's taken a lot off my shoulders this year."

Between the way Quigley and the rest of the Cats are playing, their goals are certainly within reach.

"We're not done," Quigley said. "We really want to keep going and improve on what we did last year and we don't want to end anytime soon. Our goal is to win it all, so anything less, we'll kind of be a little disappointed."

Even so, there are plenty of talented teams and players that could put a premature end to Quigley's career, but the fact that UK is now in position to contend on an annual basis will remain no matter what. Quigley has had a lot to do with that.

"There's almost no way you can describe what he's done for our program. I think he took it from, you know, we had a good culture, but now we have a championship culture."

Dennis Emery



Eric Quigley



Grant Roberts

Check out the pregame highlight video put together by the UK sports video department for senior day festivities at Cliff Hagan Stadium on Saturday. The video honors seniors Thomas McCarthy, Alex Phillips and Michael Williams. 

SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS

Trailing by a game in the standings with just two weeks left in Southeastern Conference, wins are a precious for Kentucky. Facing Alabama - a team that had won seven times in 24 conference games - for a three-game set in the comforts of Cliff Hagan Stadium, the UK had an opportunity to gain some ground.

Behind starter Taylor Rogers, the Wildcats showed no intention of letting it go by.

Rogers worked around a single lackluster inning to post his third quality start in four outings and the UK offense had its best output in SEC play in two weeks en route to a series-opening 4-2 victory over the visiting Crimson Tide. Without question, Rogers set the tone for the rest of the series, which will wrap up on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m.

"It's something that I like to do: Come out each weekend and set the tone for us and let the other team know that's what we're here to do," Rogers said.

Since a start at Arkansas in which he made it through just four innings, Rogers has put together his best four-start stretch of his junior season. With his emergence, he has lowered his ERA from 5.07 to 4.60, looking the part of a Friday night starter.

"He did phenomenal," McCarthy said. "He's been having really good starts for us and we knew he was going to go out and do his thing. He kept throwing up zeroes and our offense felt good knowing that Taylor was going to go out and do his job."

It wasn't always smooth sailing for Rogers though. He allowed the first two batters he faced to reach in the first, before coaxing a pop up and a double play ball to escape. However, he would not make it out of the third unscathed.

After Thomas McCarthy snapped an 0-for-17 slump with a two-out, two-RBI double to give UK a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second, four of the first five Alabama batters reached to open the third before Austen Smith's sacrifice fly chased home the second run of the inning to retie the score. Rogers would strike out the next batter to end the frame, his fourth through the first three innings.

 From there, Rogers didn't record a single additional punch out, but he didn't need to. After allowing six batters to reach through the first three innings, he allowed just two hits over his final four innings of work and faced the minimum three times, protecting the second two-run lead his offense gave him with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third.

"I think as it went on, the command got better. It was just more of a mindset than anything," Rogers said. "The beginning of the game, I didn't have much body control and not much of a plan. I think moving forward in the game, it got better."

"I just thought that he was confident," head coach Gary Henderson said. "Every time that he left the ball up or was soft in the release, that he made the release on the next pitch. You didn't see him lose maybe three or four in a row like you had maybe earlier in the year or earlier in his career."

Rogers would exit after seven innings having allowed two runs on seven hits and just one walk, and Alex Phillips came on in his place. He would pick up right where Rogers left off. The left-handed senior needed just 18 pitches to record the game's final six outs, the last three of which came on strikeouts. He picked up his sixth save of the season and Kentucky's 17th as a team to tie a school record set in 1993.

"(It was) kind of an outing that we've come to expect out of him," Henderson said.

Not only did Rogers and Phillips protect the lead their offense gave them, they also protected the momentum the Cats have built in since their only four-game losing streak of the season. It started last Saturday, when Corey Littrell turned in eight dazzling innings against Florida to pitch UK to a 2-1 win.

"We were scuffling a little bit at the time but it's a long season, that's part of baseball. That was a big win for us," McCarthy said of the Florida finale. "It was a statement going into these last few weekends to get that win."

Since, UK has won two more in a row to run its winning streak to three games.

Even so, the Cats don't feel their performing at full capacity. They left eight runners on base and missed out on a handful of opportunities to add to the lead. Henderson, whose Wildcats lead the SEC most offensive categories, doesn't think it will take much for his club to heat back up.

"There's still lots of season left and all it takes is one or two of those guys to get hot and next thing you know, three or four of them are and we're right back to where we want to be," Henderson said.

Final two games of series to played on Saturday

Due to the threat of inclement weather on Sunday, the final two games of UK-Alabama will be played as a doubleheader on Saturday. Former UK star and current Washington Nationals farmhand Alex Meyer will throw out the ceremonial first pitch as part of Senior Day festivities, which will take place before the 2 p.m. opener. The Wildcats' approach will not change.

"It'll be just the same," Henderson said. "We've had more this year than any other year since I've been here, so we'll just go at it the same."

Gary Henderson



Taylor Rogers



Thomas McCarthy

The sixth-ranked Kentucky men's tennis opened the NCAA Tournament with an impressive 4-0 sweep over Radford Friday afternoon. But even as heavy favorites, head coach Dennis Emery felt the match left something to be desired. 

Dennis Emery



Eric Quigley