Men’s Tennis Upends #32 Harvard, 6-0, for Second Ranked Win of Week

Friday, February 5

Nashville, Tenn.

5:00 p.m.

University of Memphis

#32 Harvard University

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Men’s Tennis Upends #32 Harvard, 6-0, for Second Ranked Win of Week

Feb 05, 2016 | Men's Tennis

Tigers get two wins over top 35 programs in back-to-back days in Nashville.

By: Tammy DeGroff

NASHVILLE – Memphis head coach Paul Goebel knew this week was a big one for his young men's tennis team. After picking up a pair of wins over regional foes last week, 7-0, the competition level stepped up with a road trip to Nashville to play a pair of top 35 ranked opponents. The result was a pair of wins after No. 37 Memphis defeated No. 32 ranked Harvard, 6-0, in a neutral site match at Vanderbilt, Friday.

That win follows a 5-2 win over No. 27 ranked Vanderbilt on Thursday and pushes Memphis to 5-2 on the season with the Tigers' two losses coming to number 28 Oklahoma State and number six Georgia.

"It was a good couple of matches for us," Goebel said. "Today we played a very good doubles point and carried momentum in to singles. Our energy was great and I am proud to finish strong in close matches against such well-coached teams in Vandy and Harvard."

It was a tangle right from the start in doubles play. Harvard came in to the match with three ranked doubles teams (although the Crimson's Brian Yeung was ranked with two different partners). Louis Asser and Kai Lemke got Memphis' first win of the day with a 6-2 win over the number 44 ranked team of Conor Haughey and Kelvin Lam and then got to sit and watch a little tennis. The other two doubles matches were highly competitive. At number two, the match was tied at 5-all when Harvard snuck out a 7-5 victory of the Memphis team of Ryan Peniston and Felix Rauch, the Tiger tandem's first doubles loss in five outings. That evened the doubles competition at 1-1 and put the deciding factor on the match at three, which was in a tiebreak. And what a tiebreak it was, with Memphis finally prevailing at 12-10 for the 1-0 lead in the match.

Rauch bounced back quickly from his doubles loss, making short work of Andy Zhou, 6-1, 7-6 to push the score to 2-0, Tigers. Then fellow freshman Chris Patzanovsky somehow managed to play three sets in the time it took his teammates to play two, coming back from a 6-1 first set loss to take the second and third sets, 6-4, 6-1 for a 3-0 Memphis lead. Lemke sealed the win for Memphis with a 6-3, 7-6 decision at number three to seal the win.

The second set tiebreak was good to the Tigers on Friday, with Peniston, Watson, Lemke, and Rauch all sealing victories in a 7-6 breaker.

Memphis now takes a break from competitive matches while The Racquet Club of Memphis sets up to host the Memphis Open ATP 250 event over the next week. Memphis is next in action on Mar. 21^st at number 20 Ole Miss, then travels to Texas for matches at No. 51 SMU to start conference play on Feb. 25^th and playing at No. 4 Baylor, Feb. 27^th.

#37 Memphis 6, #32 Harvard 0
Doubles
No. 1 – Louis Asser/Kai Lemke (Memphis) def. #44 Conor Haughey/Kelvin Lam (Harvard), 6-2
No. 2 – #32 Sebastian Beltrame/Kenny Tao (Harvard) def. Ryan Peniston/Felix Rauch (Memphis), 7-5
No. 3 – Andrew Watson/Shakeel Manji (Memphis) def. Nicky Hu/Brian Yeung (Harvard), 7-6 (12-10)
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3*
Singles
No. 1 – Ryan Peniston (Memphis) def. #71 Nicky Hu (Harvard), 6-4, 7-6
No. 2 -- #87 Andrew Watson (Memphis) def. Sebastian Beltrame (Harvard), 6-3, 7-6
No. 3 – Kai Lemke (Memphis) def. Brian Yeung (Harvard), 6-3, 7-6
No. 4 – Chris Patzanovsky (Memphis) def. Kenny Tao (Harvard), 1-6, 6-4, 6-1
No. 5 – Felix Rauch (Memphis) def. Andy Zhou (Harvard), 6-1, 7-6
No. 6 – Kelvin Lam (Harvard) vs. Shakeel Manji (Memphis), 6-4, uf
Order of Finish: 5, 4, 3*, 2, 1