Men’s Tennis Doubles Teams Fall to Top Seeds

Sunday, October 22

Knoxville, Tenn.

All Day

University of Memphis

ITA Ohio Valley Regional

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Oct 22, 2017 | Men's Tennis

One and two seeds advance to Monday finals.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – Two different Memphis doubles entries were playing the top-two seeded doubles team at the ITA Ohio Valley Regional and it was the higher seeded teams that prevailed, Sunday, at the University of Tennessee.

Until the semifinal round on Sunday, the tournament had utilized 8-game pro sets for the bracket. On Sunday, the format switched to best of three sets. The number three seeded team of Kai Lemke and Matt Story took their first set to a tiebreak, but fell 7-4 in the breaker to the top seeded team of Lachlan McPhee and Billy Rowe of Vanderbilt. The top seeds then hurried out to close out match with a 6-3 win in the second set to advance to Monday's final.

In the other semifinal, the number seven seeded team of Jan Pallares and Felix Rauch were facing the two seeds: Parker Wynn and Christopher Kougoucheff of Louisville. The Louisville duo pushed their way to the final with a 6-3, 6-0 win to set up both top seeds in the finals.

The regional is the final collegiate event on the Tigers' fall calendar. The players will have an opportunity to play in the USTA event in Birmingham, Oct. 28-Nov. 1^st. The USTA event differs from a traditional college event in that even though there will be a lot of college competitors, coaches are not allowed to coach during the USTA event.

Memphis will then wind down before the spring dual season schedule opens in January. Memphis will open its dual season with a match against Indiana on Jan. 20^th at 6 p.m. at The Racquet Club of Memphis. The Tigers will then participate in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend at the University of Georgia, facing Arkansas in the first round on Jan. 28^th, then either Georgia or Iowa in the final round on the 29^th.