Men’s Tennis Upends #18 Cornell, 4-3

Sunday, March 5

Memphis, Tenn.

11:00 am

University of Memphis

#18 Cornell University

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Mar 05, 2017 | Men's Tennis

#35 Memphis 4, #18 Cornell 3

Tigers extend winning streak to eight.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – It came down to number one singles. In the young series history between #18 ranked Cornell (12-2) and #35 ranked Memphis (10-2), the tennis gods apparently dictate that this match somehow ends up at 4-3. The 2017 meeting was no different.

The match was fiery right from the start. Cornell was coming in off a 4-0 road win at Indiana on Friday night and sported a 12-1 mark on the year. Memphis came in carrying a seven-match winning streak and was getting to play its first home match in over a month.

Cornell took an early 3-0 lead at three doubles and grabbed an early break at one doubles. While the Tiger tandem of Peniston and Felix Rauch had their match at two doubles well in hand, the match at three got away from the Tigers, 6-2. But Andrew Watson and Kai Lemke battled back at one, getting the break back and surging to a 6-3 win that ended up sealing the doubles point in Memphis' favor.

"Andrew and Kai did a great job to come back from a break down at one," Head Coach Paul Goebel said. "Sometimes, all of the attention gets on that final match that decides it, but winning the doubles point was big today."

After Memphis (10-2) won the doubles point, Watson and Rauch went on to pick up wins two and six singles. But Cornell stormed back with wins in the heart of the lineup at three, four and five to tie it at 3-3. That left junior Ryan Peniston on the court against David Volfson with the fate of the match in hand.

Peniston won the opening set 6-3 and twice had match point in the second set. But Volfson ripped a shot down the line to fight off the second match point in the set and went on to win it, 7-5. But rather than dwell on the missed opportunity to close out the match, Peniston prepared for set three and got back to work.

"You know, Ryan is just so even-keeled," Goebel said. "We always talk about if you're not going to win it, just keep hitting your shots, and he did that. (Volfson) earned that second set and played really well with his back against the wall. That's what good teams do is even though the score doesn't look good, they're never going to give it to you. So Ryan got re-focused at the beginning of the third set, realizing he was going to have to go work another whole set, and I was really proud that he was able to battle through."

Peniston broke serve three times in the deciding set and was up 5-1 when Volfson earned a break back for 5-2. But Peniston jumped up quickly and broke serve at love for the final 6-2 score, giving Memphis a third 4-3 victory over Cornell in as many meetings. Peniston is the third different Tiger to seal a 4-3 win on the season. Chris Patzanovsky clinched a 4-3 win at Dartmouth last weekend, and Jan Pallares followed two days later in a 4-3 win at Harvard. Peniston's win was also his first three-set win of the spring dual season after going 3-1 in three-setters during the fall.

"That's been our philosophy this season, trying to get everyone to play as hard as they can at each match," Goebel said. "You never know who is going to be the one who clinches the match, but we have a bunch of guys that play well as a team and when you have that, you have confidence in those situations."

Memphis is back on the road next weekend, traveling to Stillwater to play a pair of matches. Memphis will face number five ranked Oklahoma State, Friday, at 2 p.m., then will face San Diego State in a neutral site match on Saturday at noon.

The Tigers will next be at home on Mar. 15th, opening conference play against Temple at noon.

#35 Memphis 4, #18 Cornell 3
Singles
No. 1 -- #122 Ryan Peniston (Memphis) def. David Volfson, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
No. 2 -- #82 Andrew Watson (Memphis) def. Lev Kazakov, 6-0, 6-4
No. 3 – Colin Sinclair def. Kai Lemke (Memphis), 6-4, 7-5
No. 4 -- #115 Chris Vrabel def. Chris Patzanovsky (Memphis), 3-6, 6-3, 6-0
No. 5 – Pietro Rimondini def. Jan Pallares (Memphis), 6-3, 6-2
No. 6 – Felix Rauch (Memphis) def. Bernardo Casares Rose, 6-3, 7-5
Order of Finish: 2, 5, 6, 4, 3, 1
Doubles
No. 1 – Lemke/Watson (Memphis) def. Volfson/Sinclair, 6-3
No. 2 – Rauch/Peniston (Memphis) def. Vrabel/Casares Rosa, 6-2
No. 3 – Al Hill/rimondini def. Matt Story/Pallares (Memphis), 6-2
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1