Men’s Tennis Playing Two at Oklahoma State This Weekend

Friday, March 10

Stillwater, OK

3:30 p.m.

University of Memphis

#4 Oklahoma State University

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Men’s Tennis Playing Two at Oklahoma State This Weekend

Mar 09, 2017 | Men's Tennis

Tigers face #4 Oklahoma State Friday

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The University of Memphis men's tennis team is back on the road this weekend, taking its 10-2 mark and number 26 national ranking to Stillwater to face number four ranked Oklahoma State at 3:30 p.m. Friday. The Tigers will follow that match up with a 1 p.m. match Sunday against San Diego State in a neutral site match.

About #26 Memphis (10-2)

Andrew Watson is the second Tiger in as many weeks to earn American Athletic Conference Player of the Week honors. He is a perfect 9-0 in dual season singles play, including a 5-0 mark at two singles, and is the lone Tiger in the national singles rankings at number 78.
Ryan Peniston was named the league's player of the week the previous week and his three-set win at one singles against #18 ranked Cornell gave Memphis it's third 4-3 win of the season over an Ivy League opponent. Peniston's five match winning streak is the second longest on the roster behind Watson's nine-match streak.
Chris Patzanovsky had his winning streak snapped against Cornell. He had split his first two sets, then lost in the third to fall to 7-1 on the dual season. He is now 4-1 at four singles and 0-1 against ranked opponents.
The doubles pairing of Watson and Kai Lemke sealed the doubles point win against Cornell last week. That pushed the duo to 5-4 on the season atop the doubles lineup.
Teammates Ryan Peniston and Felix Rauch also grabbed a win against Cornell in doubles to move to 7-2 on the season. They have now won six straight doubles matches heading into the match at Oklahoma State.

About #4 Oklahoma State (11-3)

Oklahoma State has won three straight matches over top 25 ranked opponents, including a 4-1 win over number nine ranked Michigan in its last team outing last Thursday.
Two of Oklahoma State's three losses have come to teams ranked in the top five in the country (Wake Forest, 4-3; Ohio State, 4-0).
OSU returns every starter off a roster that made it to the NCAA Round of 16 last year. The roster is well-seasoned as the Cowboys are playing 15 teams that advanced to the NCAA Championships last year, including Memphis.
The doubles team of Arjun Kadhe and Lucas Gerch won the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships last weekend. That tandem is not even the highest ranked doubles team on the OSU roster. They are ranked 31 in the latest ITA rankings, while the pairing of Kadhe with teammate Julian Cash is number three in the country. Gerch is also ranked with teammate Jurence Mendoza in doubles. That duo is number 71 in the country.
Julian Cash is the highest ranked Cowboy singles player. The junior started his collegiate career at Mississippi State, but is in his second season at OSU, having earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors last year. He is one of four OSU players in the singles rankings released Tuesday: Cash (#21), Kadhe (#54), Lukas Finzelberg (#62), Lucas Gerch (#124)
Oklahoma State is one of three Big 12 teams on the Memphis roster. Memphis still has upcoming matches with Big 12 foes Texas Tech and Baylor on tap after the match at OSU.

About San Diego State (5-5, 1-0 Mountain West)

San Diego State has won four of its last six matches, including a 4-1 win over Boise State in their conference opener in their last outing.
Milen Ianakiev is off to a 3-3 start at one singles for San Diego State and is also 2-1 at two singles. He and Marko Gales-Babic have split time at one and two singles through the first ten matches on the season.
No Aztec has a winning streak of more than one match heading into a tough weekend against two ranked foes -- Memphis (Saturday) and Oklahoma State (Sunday).
SDSU advanced to the Mountain West championship match last year, falling 4-2 to two-seeded Boise State, the same team they just beat in the conference opener last week.
This is the second straight year SDSU will be playing a #26 ranked Memphis team. The Tigers won the meeting last year, 4-0 as part of the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic

Memphis and San Diego State have met in four of the past five years, typically as part of the San Diego spring tournament. Memphis has won all four of those meetings.