Peniston and Rauch Advance to Doubles Semifinals

Saturday, October 17

Knoxville, Tenn.

8:00 a.m. ET

University of Memphis

ITA Ohio Valley Regional

Photo by: Ben Solomon

Oct 17, 2015 | Men's Tennis

Tigers play in semifinal at 10 a.m., Sunday.

By: Tammy DeGroff

KNOXVILLE – Sophomore Ryan Peniston and freshman Felix Rauch advanced to the semifinals of the doubles draw at the ITA Ohio Valley Regional championships at the University of Tennessee, Saturday.

The duo, seeded as one of the No. 9 seeds, upset No. 5 seeded Pennington and Bushamuka of Kentucky, 8-6, to advance to the semifinals. There, they will the No. 2 seeded team of Alex Gornet and Jeff Brown, who earlier in the tourney, defeated Tiger teammates Andrew Watson and Shakeel Manji. That match is set for 10 a.m. (ET), Sunday.

In singles play, Peniston saw his run come to an end in the Round of 16, falling to No. 15 seeded Sam Monette of Indiana, 6-1, 6-3. Monette then took care of the other Tiger in the draw, upending No. 3 seeded Andrew Watson, 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the semifinal against Louisville's Gornet.

Watson had advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles draw earlier in the day with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 win over Rogerio Ribeiro from East Tennessee State, but could not get past Monette.

Freshman Chris Patzanovsky is the lone Tiger still alive in a singles draw. Playing in the A consolation draw after losing his first round match, Patzanovsky received a walkover, then defeated Louisville's S. Salazr, 6-1, 6-0 to advance to the consolation semifinals in the draw. He will play his semifinal match at 11 a.m., Sunday. The winner of that match faces A. Cordero from Middle Tennessee in the 2 p.m. draw final.