Peniston Wins Ohio Valley Regional Championship

MEMPHIS – Junior men's tennis player Ryan Peniston had lost the first sets in both his quarterfinal and semifinal matches at the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships presented by Oracle over the weekend. He made getting a quick start in Monday's championship final a point of emphasis and it resulted in a 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 victory and securing a spot in the USTA National Indoor Championships in Flushing, N.Y., Nov. 3-6^th, Monday, at the University of Tennessee.

"His last couple of matches, Ryan had lost the first sets," Head Coach Paul Goebel said. "He really managed to get his focus and play well in second and third to get wins there, but today, we focused on getting off to a quicker starter. He played a pretty much flawless first set, one of the best first sets I've seen him play."

Peniston blitzed through the first set 6-0, but Kentucky's Trey Yates came back with a 6-3 win in the second to force a third set.

"In the second set, his opponent picked up his game and there were a couple of close deuce points that went Kentucky's way," Goebel said. "The third set was truly a fantastic set to determine the champion of this tourney. Both players played at a high level. It was some really good tennis. It was nice to see Ryan handle the pressure situation, hitting out on his shots and being aggressive, a lot of the things we've been working on in practice. He applied them today in a big-time situation."

With Peniston's win in the final, Memphis has now won a championship at the regional level in three of the past four seasons, qualifying a total of four different players for the national indoor event at the same complex that hosts the U.S. Open each year.

Memphis sent its first-ever entry to the national level event that caps the fall in college tennis back in 2013, when seniors David O'Hare and Joe Salisbury captured the Ohio Valley doubles championship. Freshman Andrew Watson then captured the program's first-ever singles title at the regional the following season to earn his trip to the Big Apple.

"Once every five years would be an accomplishment," Goebel said. "So to send three in four years is amazing. This really caps what was a great effort for our team this weekend. We had two teams make the doubles quarters, five players in round of 32, and three in top 16. There were a lot of really good individual performances and it was a good way for us to finish the fall, collegiate portion of our schedule."

A handful of players will enter the USTA Futures event in Birmingham, Friday through Monday, looking to perhaps earn a professional point before the semester ends and exams begin. Peniston, who was planning on being in the USTA event, will instead now play in the 32-player singles draw in New York on Nov. 3-5^th.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Ryan Peniston

Andrew Watson

University of Memphis Athletics