Men’s Tennis Stays Unbeaten in Conference Play

MEMPHIS – At 5-4 up and receiving serve at deuce, freshman men’s tennis player Ryan
Peniston stepped aside and watched his opponent’s forehand shot sail long to secure
a 4-2 University of Memphis (6-3, 2-0 American Athletic Conference) win over No. 62
Tulane (9-4, 0-1 American), Sunday, at The Racquet Club of Memphis. The comeback,
three-set win was one of three singles wins provided by the freshman class for the
Tigers.

“It was great for us to get the doubles point to get a quick start,” Head Coach Paul
Goebel said. “But we knew that Tulane has a really strong singles lineup and had to
be ready. Their player at No. 1 is one of the top players in the country (ranked No.
14) and we knew we’d have a tough match there, then Patrick Mayer lost a tough third
set at No. 3. That can really be the difference in a season, winning some of those
three-setters, and today, Shakeel Manji was coming back and had forced a third set
in his match, then Ryan Peniston battled back for the win in his match. Those were
some big wins from our freshmen.”

Memphis picked up a pair of wins at 1 and 3 doubles for the early team lead in the
match, but Dominik Koepfer, the No. 14 ranked player in the country in the latest
ITA singles rankings, evened the match with a 6-2, 6-4 win at No. 1.

Freshman Kai Lemke answered back for the Tigers with a 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 5 and
fellow freshman Andrew Watson seized momentum from a 7-6 (5) tiebreak and won his
match at No. 2, 7-6, 6-1, to give Memphis a 3-1 lead, but Tulane’s Alex Van Cott
came back from a 6-3 first set loss to win 6-2, 6-1 in the last two sets for a win
at No. 3 singles, pulling Tulane to 3-2 down.

With two matches left on the court, Peniston’s match at No. 4 and Manji’s match at
No. 6, all eyes moved to the bottom half of the lineup. Peniston won his first set
in a tightly-contested tiebreaker, then lost 6-0 in the second set, and trailed in
the third set while Manji was fighting off match point at No. 6. After losing the
first set 6-3, Manji was down 5-2 in the second and came all the way back to force a
second set tiebreak, winning 7-6 to force a third set.

With both matches in the third, Peniston strung together points against former
junior tennis cohort Sebastian Rey and watched Rey’s shot sail long at deuce at 5-4
in the third set for the win.

“We are really good mates and played all through junior tennis together,” Peniston
said. “We’ve never played against one another like that though. It’s tough playing
someone you know that well.”

The win was the 15th of the year the fifth at No. 4 singles for Peniston, who
improves to 5-2 in dual season play.

Memphis remains home for another weekend. The Tigers will host regional foe
Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 10 a.m. Friday before hosting No. 5 ranked Baylor, Sunday, at
1 p.m. at The Racquet Club of Memphis. Baylor will be the highest-ranked opponent to
come to the Bluff City for the men’s tennis program.  Admission for both matches
will be free.

No. 42 Memphis 4, No. 62 Tulane 2
Doubles
No. 1 – Connor Glennon/Kai Lemke (Memphis) def. Dominik Koepfer/Chi-Shan Jao, 6-2
No. 2 – Andrew Watson/Louis Asser (Memphis) vs. Constantin Schmitz/Sebastian Ray,
4-3, uf
No. 3 – Patrick Mayer/Shakeel Manji (Memphis) def. Alex Van Cott/Ian Van Cott, 6-3
Order of finish: 1, 3
Singles
No. 1 -- #14 Dominik Koepfer def. #54 Connor Glennon (Memphis), 6-2, 6-4
No. 2 -- #50 Andrew Watson (Memphis) def. Constantin Schmitz, 7-6, 6-1
No. 3 – Alex Van Cott def. Patrick Mayer (Memphis), 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
No. 4 – Ryan Peniston (Memphis) def. Sebastian Rey, 7-6, 0-6, 6-3
No. 5 – Kai Lemke (Memphis) def. Chi-shan Jao, 6-4, 6-3
No. 6 – Shakeel Manji (Memphis) vs. Ian Van Cott, 3-6, 7-6, 2-3, uf
Order of finish: 1, 5, 2, 3, 4


-www.gotigersgo.com-


[MemphisOutlook]

Tammy DeGroff
Assistant Director (Women's Basketball/Men's Tennis/Women’s Golf)