Men’s Tennis Tangles With #19 USF

Sunday, April 17

Memphis, Tenn.

1:00 p.m.

University of Memphis

#19 USF

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Apr 17, 2016 | Men's Tennis

Tigers fall in home finale, but take defending conference champs to three sets in five of six singles matches.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The final score read 4-0 in favor of number 19 ranked USF (17-8, 4-1 American), but the match was significantly more challenging than that for the two-time defending conference champions against a home-standing Memphis team (14-9, 2-2 American) looking for another win before the conference tournament started. After USF went up 1-0 with 6-2 wins at two and three doubles, the Tigers found some momentum in singles play and forced five of the six singles matches to three sets before USF closed out the win.

USF made a pair of lineup changes and capitalized on wins from the top three singles spots to pick up their fourth conference win in five outings, snapping a five-match Memphis winning streak in the process.

Junior Sasha Gozun moved from three to two singles before the Bulls played road matches this weekend at Tulsa and Memphis. That allowed the Bulls to move number 44 ranked Dominic Cotrone down to three singles and the move paid off for the visiting team as Cotrone improved to 2-1 at three singles with a straight set, 7-5, 6-1, win over Kai Lemke for a 2-0 USF lead. Gozun then improved to 3-3 on the year at two singles with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over number 67 ranked Ryan Peniston for a 3-0 USF lead.

Further down the lineup, the Bulls had initially marked Ignacio Gonzalez-Muniz to play five singles.

Gonzalez-Muniz, who is 1-2 on the year at five, played three doubles with Roberto Cid and got the first win of the morning for the Bulls, but then was pulled from the singles lineup after the doubles point was done. That moved Vadym Kalyuzhnyy from six to five singles and slid Everth Dzib in to the lineup at six. Neither Kalyuzhnyy nor Dzib would get to finish their matches though, as Cid, the number three ranked singles player in the country, came back from a 6-3 first set loss to win his second and third sets, 7-5, 6-1, to seal the win as Kalyuzhnyy was trying to win his third set at five.

The regular season is now complete for both teams and both will next be back in action at the American Athletic Conference tournament, hosted by Memphis at Memphis University School, starting on Thursday. The eight and nine seeds in the draw will face on another Thursday morning at 9 a.m. On Friday, all of the other teams in the field will be in action, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Dunavant-Wellford Tennis Center.

#19 USF 4, #38 Memphis 0
Doubles
No. 1 – Kai Lemke/Louis Asser (Memphis) vs. #32 Sasha GozunVadym Kalyuzhnyy, 3-4, uf
No. 2 – Dominic Cotrone/Peter Bertran def. Ryan Peniston/Felix Rauch (Memphis), 6-2
No. 3 – Roberto Cid/Ignacio Gonzalez-Muniz def. Andrew Watson/Shakeel Manji (Memphis), 6-2
Singles
No. 1 -- #3 Roberto Cid def. Andrew Watson (Memphis), 3-6, 7-5, 6-1
No. 2 – Sasha Gozun def. #67 Ryan Peniston (Memphis), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
No. 3 -- #44 Dominic Cotrone def. Kai Lemke (Memphis), 7-5, 6-1
No. 4 – Chris Patzanovsky (Memphis) vs. Peter Bertran, 6-4, 6-7, 2-5, uf
No. 5 – Felix Rauch (Memphis) vs. Vadym Kalyuzhnyy, 2-6, 6-4, 5-6, uf
No. 6 – Shakeel Manji (Memphis) vs. Everth Dzib, 7-6 (1), 3-6, 4-1, uf