No. 28 Men’s Tennis Set for Texas Tech, fourth-ranked Baylor

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MEMPHIS – The 28^th-ranked Memphis men's tennis team hits the road this weekend to visit two Big 12 foes in Texas Tech Friday and No. 4 Baylor Sunday.

The Tigers will face the Red Raiders at McLeod Tennis Center at 8 p.m., in Lubbock Friday before a Sunday meeting with the Bears at Hurd Tennis Center in Waco Sunday at 1 p.m.

Memphis is coming off of a 4-0 win over Temple March 15 to open American Athletic Conference play and looks to stay hot finishing a stretch in which it plays four of five matches on the road.

About Memphis (12-3)

Memphis is the second-highest ranked of five teams in the American in this week's ITA rankings. The Tigers are ranked No. 28, one spot behind USF. Other ranked teams in the league include: Tulane (No. 30), SMU (No. 32, tied) and UCF (No. 47). Tulsa, which was ranked 45^th in last week's poll, dropped out of the March 21 release.
Andrew Watson ranks 75^th nationally in singles and is 18-6 in singles play to lead the Tigers. The junior jumped three spots in the rankings following a straight-set win at No. 2 against Temple. The only blemish on Watson's 10-1 dual-match singles mark came in a three-set defeat on court two at then-fourth-ranked Oklahoma State on March 10.
Ryan Peniston boasts a 16-7 mark in singles with seven of those wins coming at No. 1. Along with Watson, Peniston and Felix Rauch picked up singles victories against Temple to help seal the match win in the Tigers' last time out.
Rauch and Peniston and Matt Story and Jan Pallares each took doubles matches on courts two and three, respectively, to give Memphis the doubles point. Rauch and Peniston improved to 13-2 paired together, including 10-2 in dual play. Story and Pallares moved to 10-2 as a team and have now won two consecutive doubles matches.

About Texas Tech (7-10)

Texas Tech returns home to play the Tigers after a stretch of eight matches away from McLeod Tennis Center. The Red Raiders went 3-5 over that period with losses to Texas A&M, South Carolina, Illinois, Northwestern and Southern California – all ranked teams.
Two of TTU's three wins on the trip were against ranked opposition – 4-3 versus No. 50 Alabama Feb. 25 and 4-3 versus No. 35 Indiana on March 16.
Memphis represents the sixth consecutive ranked team Texas Tech will face this season.
Texas Tech boasts a pair of singles players ranked nationally as Jolan Cailleau is 42^nd and Bjorn Thomson (who was unranked last week) jumped to 60^th overall in the latest poll.
The doubles pairs of Thompson and Connor Curry and Curry and Ronit Bisht are 24^th and tied for 61^st, respectively.

About Baylor (16-3)

Baylor enters play this weekend with its highest national ranking of the season at No. 4 having beaten SMU, Cal and Southern California at the BNP Paribas Challenge last week at Indian Wells.
The Bears have just one loss in their last nine matches, that coming at the hands of UCLA, 4-0, on March 11.
Nine of Baylor's 16 victories have come against schools in the ITA national rankings.
Baylor has three players in the ITA singles rankings, including Big 12 Player of the Week Juan Benitez (fifth), Maxime Tchoutakian (37^th) and Johannes Schretter (100^th).
Two doubles teams are also in the national rankings: No. 29 Benitez and Will Little and No. 72 Little and Schretter.

No. 28 Men’s Tennis Set for Texas Tech, fourth-ranked Baylor

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Players Mentioned

Jan Pallares

Ryan Peniston

Felix Rauch

Matt Story

Andrew Watson

University of Memphis Athletics

No. 28 Men’s Tennis Set for Texas Tech, fourth-ranked Baylor

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Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jan Pallares

Ryan Peniston

Felix Rauch

Matt Story

Andrew Watson

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