Men’s Tennis Sweeps Michigan State, 7-0

Friday, January 20

Memphis, Tenn.

7:00 p.m.

University of Memphis

Michigan State University

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Jan 20, 2017 | Men's Tennis

Memphis 7, Michigan State 0

Tigers win season opener with Sunday match against LSU next up.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The University of Memphis men's tennis team swept Michigan State (2-1), 7-0, in its spring dual season opener, Friday.

The Tigers jumped out to a 1-0 lead thanks to wins at two and three doubles and the duo of Kai Lemke and Andrew Watson made it a sweep with a 6-2 win at one to close doubles play.

"That was a really fun night of tennis," Head Coach Paul Goebel said. "Our guys really came out ready to play from the first point of doubles and that was so encouraging to see. We had a lot of energy and played hard and really had some good performances and were able to keep that going in singles."

Memphis got out to fast starts at five and six singles, quickly going up 3-0 in the match thanks to straight set wins from Jan Pallares and Felix Rauch.

Some of the other matches, though, had some slower starts.

"Michigan State fought really hard and got a good start on a lot of courts," Goebel said. "But we kept our composure and for the first match of the season, there were a lot of positives."

Andrew Watson iced the win with a 6-4, 6-1 win at two singles, but teammate Ryan Peniston was in a bigger battle in his match, trailing in the second set at one point before breaking back for a 6-3, 6-4 win.

At three singles, Kai Lemke dropped his opening set, 6-2, but kept coming at his Spartans opponent for a 6-1 win in the second and a 6-2 win in the third.

That moved all eyes down to court four, where Chris Patzanovsky maximized his court time, coming back from a 7-5 first set loss to win a second set tiebreaker 7-6 (5). That forced a super tiebreak, which Patzanovsky wrapped up just at the two hour mark, 10-5, sealing the Memphis sweep to start the season.

Memphis has short rest before another opponent strolls in to the Racquet Club of Memphis, Sunday. Memphis and LSU will face off at 1 p.m. in a battle of the Tigers.

"We're really excited to host an SEC team, we appreciate LSU coming in," Goebel said. "They are always very well coached, they have a great history and they are always super competitive and are one of the top teams in the country.

We had such a great crowd tonight, it was one of the best crowds we've ever had and we're hoping to have that many or more on Sunday."

Admission for all UofM tennis matches is free. The matches will be played indoors on the Stadium Club courts and will begin with doubles play at 1 p.m.

Memphis 7, Michigan State 0
Doubles
No. 1 – Kai Lemke/Andrew Watson (Memphis) def. Jasper Koenen/Michael Dube, 6-2
No. 2 – Ryan Peniston/Felix Rauch (Memphis) def. Billy Shisler/Doug Francken, 6-1
No. 3 – Matt Story/Jan Palares (Memphis) def. Brett Forman/Alexander Kim, 6-2
Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1
Singles
No. 1 -- #35 Ryan Peniston (Memphis) def. Brett Forman, 6-3, 6-4
No. 2 -- #111 Andrew Watson (Memphis) def. Michael Dube, 6-4, 6-1
No. 3 – Kai Lemke (Memphis) def. Jasper Koenen, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2
No. 4 – Chris Patzanovsky (Memphis) def. Alexander Kim, 5-7, 7-6 (4), 1-0 (10-5)
No. 5 – Jan Pallares (Memphis) def. Ivan Rakic, 6-2, 6-1
No. 6 – Felix Rauch (Memphis) def. Billy Shisler, 6-0, 6-2
Order of Finish: 6, 5, 2 1 3, 4