Men’s Tennis Closing Regular Season in Florida

Saturday, April 15

Fort Myers, Florida

6:00 pm (ET)

University of Memphis

Florida Gulf Coast University

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Apr 14, 2017 | Men's Tennis

Tigers to play at Florida Gulf Coast Saturday and at USF Monday.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The University of Memphis men's tennis (13-6, 2-1 American) team will close its 2016 regular season on the road with a pair of matches in Florida this weekend. On Saturday, Memphis will play at Florida Gulf Coast (7-11) at 5 p.m. (CT), the Tigers will then face USF, Monday, in the final contest of the regular season.

That Monday match could be a deciding factor in conference tournament seeding for the American Athletic Conference Championships that follow just two days later in Orlando. Currently, USF is the highest-ranked team in the conference in the latest ITA Rankings at No. 26, followed closely by No. 27 Tulane (who edged Memphis 4-3 in the Tigers' last game), No. 30 UCF, No. 34 Memphis and No. 36 SMU. A USF win could secure the top seed for the two-time defending American champion Bulls, while a Tiger road win could push Memphis up in the seedings.

Head Coach Paul Goebel's comments:
"I feel very good where our team is. We're very seasoned and had a very tough schedule. Health-wise, we're going in to the home stretch very healthy. I feel like we are in shape, we've been working a lot on fitness lately and some small stuff we've seen come up in some matches lately. So I'm excited to see what happens.

We will play two matches in Florida this weekend and then will stay down there for the conference championships. USF won our conference the last two years and Florida Gulf Coast has been one or two in their conference for the last four or five seasons, so they will be two very tough matches. We're hoping that playing down there in Florida, where it's a little warmer than we're used to and where the wind blows more than we're used to, will help prepare us for the conference tournament."

About #34 Memphis (13-6, 2-1 American)

Memphis is well-versed in seeing higher ranked teams on the road. In looking at the latest USTA Rankings (the USTA ranks a top 25 in college tennis compared to a top 50 in ITA rankings), Memphis has played at #6 Oklahoma State, at # 9 Baylor, at 21 Northwestern and has also faced 14 Stanford and #22 Cornell.
Ryan Peniston broke back in to the national singles rankings following a 7-6, 7-5 win over then-#18 ranked (now #16) Constantin Schmitz in the 4-3 loss to Tulane. Now ranked #79 after being 77 in last week's rankings (the Tigers were idle last weekend), Peniston sports a 17-9 overall record and an 8-5 mark at one singles.
Also in the national rankings is fellow junior Andrew Watson. Watson, ranked 105 in this week's ratings leads Memphis with 10 dual singles wins on the season, including an 8-4 mark at two. On the year, he is 18-9, which ties with Jan Pallares for the team lead in total wins, but Watson is looking to get back in the win column, having dropped three straight matches.
Chris Patzanovsky is another Tiger looking to start a new winning streak. After winning seven straight matches in January and February, Patzanovsky has gone 2-3 with an additional four unfinished matches in the months of March and April. The sophomore is 9-4 in dual season play, just a win behind Watson's 10-win mark, and is 6-4 at four singles.
Freshman Jan Pallares will look to make a run to distinction as one of the league's best freshmen over the weekend. Playing in both the singles and doubles lineup for Memphis, the first year player is 18-9 on the season, tied with Watson, and is 9-4 in dual season play. With a 7-3 mark at five singles, Pallares can help generate needed points from the bottom half of the lineup for the Tigers. He is teaming with fellow frosh Matt Story to play three doubles, and the duo has nine wins there, leading the team. They have twiced clinched the doubles point with the score at 1-1 in doubles play. Pallares' three-match winning streak leads the team.
Junior Kai Lemke is looking for his 10^th spring singles win heading in to the weekend. Lemke clinched the victory over #38 SMU and the German native is now 1-1 in conference play. He is 7-7 at three singles and is 6-3 with one unfinished match in his last 10 outings.

About Florida Gulf Coast (7-11, 3-3 Atlantic Sun)

Florida Gulf Coast is the two-time defending champions in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Eagles defeated North Florida, now coached by former Tiger player and assistant coach Mark Finnegan, in the 2016 conference championships. Head coach CJ Weber is the two-time conference coach of the year in the A-Sun.
Andreas Alfonzo was named first team all-conference for the Eagles last season and Javier Fernandez was named the league's Freshman of the Year. Both are back this season. Alfonzo has played in spots one through five as the season has played out, and is 4-13 on the year, including a 3-7 mark in dual season play, while Fernandez is 20-16 on the year with a 9-8 dual season mark, including a 3-4 mark at five and a 3-1 mark at six.
Felipe Ramirez has held down the top spot of the singles lineup as of late for FGCU. He is 2-5 at one and is 10-19 on the year, but is carrying the team's longest winning streak, four matches, in to this weekend's play. In all, five different players have played at two in the lineup, with Oliver Landert the most frequent occupant there with an 0-6 mark.
FGCU does not have live scoring, but does tweet scoring updates from its Twitter account @FGCU_MTen
This will be FGCU's final match before hosting the 2017 Atlantic Sun Conference championships. The league's quarterfinals will begin next Friday, Apr. 21^st.

About #26 USF (13-8, 2-1 American Athletic Conference)

The two-time defending American Athletic Conference champs will host Memphis on Monday afternoon in what will the final league match of the season before the conference bracket is announced Monday evening.
The event will also be senior day for the Bulls and Sasha Gozun and Vadym Kalyuzhnyy. Gozun, ranked #57 in the country, is 9-7 at one singles for the Bulls this season, while Kalyuzhnyy is 9-2 at five singles. Gozun teams with Alberto Barroso at one singles, and the tandem is 10-3 on the season and has a team-best three-match winning streak coming in to the conference clash with Memphis.
Junior Peter Bertran, #112 in the latest rankings, leads USF with 14 singles wins in dual season play, including an 11-1 mark at four singles. His five-match singles winning streak leads the squad and he is 8-1 with one unfinished match in his last 10 outings.
Alberto Barroso-Campos is also in the national rankings, breaking in at number 101 this week. He is 12-4 on the season, including a 9-1 mark at three and a 1-1 mark at two.
At three doubles, the pairing of Kalyuzhnyy and freshman Jakub Wojcik are 7-3 on the year.
USF is in its first season with new head coach Ashley Fisher. Fisher spent 14 seasons on the ATP World Tour and is in his first collegiate coaching job. He is a graduate of TCU, the Bulls' last opponent. TCU beat USF 4-0 in their last outing.
The Bulls' one conference loss this season was a 4-2 outing at UCF, the host site of the 2017 American Athletic Conference championships, back on Apr. 1^st. USF downed Tulane 5-2 in Tampa at the end of March and USF has faced SMU twice, beating them 4-2 both times. USF also swept Tulsa, 5-0, back on Mar. 12^th.
Live stats for the match up with USF will be here: http://www.gousfbulls.com/fls/7700/stats/tennis/xlive.htm?DB_OEM_ID=7700