Men’s Tennis Wins Fifth Straight

Saturday, April 2

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

11:00 am

University of Memphis

Virginia Commonwealth University

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Apr 02, 2016 | Men's Tennis

Watson, Lemke and Manji seal win against VCU.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The University of Memphis men's tennis team (14-8) won its fifth straight match Saturday with a 4-0, neutral site win over VCU (14-7), in Murfreesboro at Middle Tennessee. Memphis, ranked No. 35 in the country in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) poll, will close out its 2016 regular season at home against #17 ranked USF, Apr. 17^th at noon at The Racquet Club of Memphis.

Memphis jumped out to a quick lead with a 6-0 win at three doubles from the pairing of Andrew Watson and Shakeel Manji at three doubles and then when the Tigers' number one team of Louis Asser and Kai Lemke battled for a 7-5 win at one, the Tigers had the early 1-0 lead.

"This was a good weekend for us," Head Coach Paul Goebel said. "It was just what we needed, we showed some toughness."

Memphis then got straight set wins from Watson and Lemke to push the match to 3-0 in the Tigers' favor, but the outcome had to wait until Manji gutted out a three-set win at six singles to seal the win.

With the win, Memphis has won five straight and six of the last seven. That will be much-needed momentum for the Apr. 17^th rematch with the two-time, defending American Athletic Conference champs, USF. USF has won the last two meetings versus Memphis, including a 2014 league championship match on the Racquet Club courts. But of the Tiger roster that day, only Louis Asser remains, as the rest of the Memphis roster is made up of sophomores and freshmen.

Admission to that match will be free.

#35 Memphis 4, VCU 0
Doubles
No. 1 – Kai Lemke/Louis Asser (Memphis) def. Vitor Lima/Daryl Monfils, 7-5
No. 2 – Ryan Peniston/Felix Rauch (Memphis) vs. Arvid Noren/Louis Ishizaka, uf
No. 3 – Andrew Watson/Shakeel Manji (Memphis) def. Michal Voscek/Catalin Fifea, 6-0
Singles
No. 1 -- #105 Andrew Watson (Memphis) def. Michal Voscek, 6-1, 6-4
No. 2 -- #76 Ryan Peniston (Memphis) vs. Vitor Lima, 6-1, 4-6, uf
No. 3 – Kai Lemke (Memphis) def. Catalin Fifea, 6-1, 6-3
No. 4 – Chris Patzanovsky (Memphis) vs. Daryl Monfils, 7-6, 1-2, uf
No. 5 – Felix Rauch (Memphis) vs. Arvid Noren, 6-2, 2-6, uf
No. 6 – Shakeel Manji (Memphis) def. Louis Ishizaka, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2