Men’s Tennis Facing Pair of Ranked Foes This Week in Nashville

Thursday, February 4

Nashville, TN

5:00 p.m.

University of Memphis

#27 Vanderbilt University

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Men’s Tennis Facing Pair of Ranked Foes This Week in Nashville

Feb 03, 2016 | Men's Tennis

Tigers facing two top 40 opponents on the road.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The Memphis men's tennis team has moved up to number 37 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) standings and will have opportunities to add more ranked wins to their 2016 record (3-2) this week. The Tigers play at number 27 ranked Vanderbilt, Thursday, at 5 p.m., then face number 32 ranked Harvard, Friday, at 5 p.m., also in Nashville. The two matches are part of an 11-match streak of either road or neutral site matches for Memphis that will extend to March. Memphis will not play a home match until March 24^th.

Memphis swept a pair of regional matches last weekend, blanking Chattanooga and Murray State. Sophomore Ryan Peniston continues to build on a strong fall. He is 2-0 at number one singles and 2-0 at number two and has won six straight matches dating back to the fall slate. He leads the team with a 17-4 record and is 8-1 in his last 10 matches with one match unfinished. In doubles, he is teaming with freshman Felix Rauch, and the duo has won four straight in dual season play to move to 14-4 on the season and 4-1 in dual season play.

Fellow sophomores Kai Lemke and Andrew Watson are also having good starts to their spring slates. Both have 13 wins on the year with Lemke carrying a 2-1 mark in dual season play and Watson sporting a 3-2 mark. Lemke is also teaming with Louis Asser at the number one doubles slot, where the tandem is 2-3. But the three losses were stiff tests, with two of them coming to teams that rank in the top 10 in the country and all three coming to ranked opponents.

Freshman Chris Patzanovsky has also contributed to the singles cause in his first campaign. He is 2-0 at number three singles and 1-1 at number four and is now 11-7 on the season and 3-1 in dual season play.

Vanderbilt is 2-0 at home so far this season and is 3-0 on the season with wins over Middle Tennessee, Lipscomb and Furman.

On Friday, Memphis will remain in Nashville and will face Harvard, a team they have usually faced over the past three or four seasons in San Diego at the multi-team tournament there. The match-up with the Crimson moves east this time and should be a tangle right from the start as Harvard has three ranked doubles teams. College tennis starts a match with three doubles matches, with the team that wins two of the three matches taking the point that counts toward the team score.

There will be live stats for the Vanderbilt match at http://www.vucommodores.com/livestats/m-tennis/xlive.htm.