Men’s Tennis Hosting Pair of Non-Conference Matches Thursday

Thursday, March 24

Memphis, Tenn.

2:00 p.m.

University of Memphis

#42 Dartmouth College

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Men’s Tennis Hosting Pair of Non-Conference Matches Thursday

Mar 23, 2016 | Men's Tennis

Memphis hosting Dartmouth and Jackson State in non-conference play.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The #33 ranked men's tennis team at the University of Memphis will have a busy weekend on tap this week, starting with two non-conference matches on Thursday. Memphis will host #42 Dartmouth at 2 p.m., Thursday, at The Racquet Club of Memphis, then will wrap up the afternoon with a 7:30 p.m. match against Jackson State. On Saturday, the Tigers will host league foe Temple, at 9 a.m., followed by a 3 p.m. match against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. All four matches will be played at The Racquet Club of Memphis.

In case of inclimate weather on Thursday, the Dartmouth match could be moved indoors at 12:30 p.m. Updates on match times will be available on the team's Twitter account at @UofMTennis and on the Facebook.com/MemphisMensTennis page.

Dartmouth comes to the Bluff City with an 11-7 overall mark and having already faced three other American Athletic Conference foes s. Dartmouth fell to Tulane, 4-3, in the season-opening ITA Kickoff weekend, then lost at SMU and Tulsa, 4-3.

Dovydas Sakinis leads the Big Green lineup at one singles. Currently ranked No. 81 in the latest ITA singles rankings, he is currently 9-8 at one singles and is 6-3 in his last 10 outings. He is also teaming with Roko Glasnovic and is currently No. 72 in the latest doubles rankings released Tuesday.

Jackson State comes to the match-up with Memphis with a 5-9 overall record and having won two of their last three matches at the SWAC round-up in Montgomery, Ala., last weekend.

Memphis is carrying a two-match winning streak after snapping a streak where they lost five straight to nationally-ranked teams, including four on the road.

Sophomore Ryan Peniston leads Memphis at No. 76 in the national rankings and with a 23-8 mark in singles this year, including a 6-2 mark at number two and a 4-2 mark at number one. Teammate, and fellow sophomore, Andrew Watson is also in the national rankings, at No. 105, and is coming off a pair of wins at one singles last weekend at the San Diego State tournament. Those wins pushed him to 16-8 on the year and 6-5 in dual season singles and to 3-4 at No. 1.

Sophomore Kai Lemke is trying to be the second Tiger to 20 singles wins on the year. He is currently 18-10 overall and 7-6 in dual season play, but is looking to bounce back from a singles loss against Denver. He and teammate Louis Asser have been anchoring the one doubles spot for Memphis all of the spring, sporting a 6-9 mark, but having faced nine nationally-ranked opponents, including three top 10 teams. After falling at one doubles, 6-4, against Princeton, the duo posted back-to-back 6-3 wins against host San Diego State and Denver.