Jan. 25, 2010

TULSA, Okla. -

Memphis/Tulsa Results

Memphis/Oklahoma State Results

The Memphis men's tennis program picked up victories in doubles over No. 25 Oklahoma State and No. 34 Tulsa, but were unable to pick up the wins in singles to take down the Cowboys and Golden Hurricane this weekend at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla.

To open up the weekend, the Tigers fell 5-2 to No. 34 Tulsa, the reigning Conference USA champion. Memphis started the match winning two of three doubles matches against the Golden Hurricane to go ahead in the match, 1-0.

At No. 2 doubles, Leon Nasemann and John Taylor upended Tulsa's duo of Marko Ballok and Alistair Barnes, 8-6.

The Memphis duo of Spencer Heflin and Charlie Ramsay secured the doubles point for the Tigers, taking down Grant Ive and Albert Jou, 9-8.

At No. 1 doubles, Jordan Smith and David Henry came up just short of defeating Philip Stephens and Ashley Watling, falling 8-7.

In singles, the Golden Hurricane went up 3-1 in the match with wins at the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 singles positions.

Down 3-1, the Tigers were battling at the No. 1, No. 4 and No. 6 positions. At No. 4 singles, Janz, a junior from Lousanne, Switzerland, forced a third set with Ballok. Janz lost the first set, 7-5, but bounced back to take the second set, 6-3.

At No. 1 singles, Nasemann, a junior from Wuppertahl, Germany, won the first set over Stephens, 7-6, but went to a third set after his Tulsa opponent was victorious in the second frame, 6-5.

With Nasemann and Janz in their matches, the match came down to Gaerthoeffner, a junior from Rheine, Germany, forcing a third set with Tulsa's Tristan Jackson. Gaerthoeffner lost the first set, 6-4, but went back-and-forth with Jackson in the second set. The two foes went to a tiebreaker in the second set but Jackson was able to seize momentum quickly to secure the second-set win and the overall win, 6-4, 7-6.

With Tulsa securing the win, 4-1, Janz, who was up in his third set with Ballok at the time of Gaerthoeffner's loss, lost the set, 7-4. Nasemann was able to take the third set against Stephens, 10-6, putting the final tally at Tulsa 5, Memphis 2.

On Saturday, the Tigers started off the match with the Cowboys of Oklahoma State winning two-of-three doubles matches to take the doubles points over the 25th-ranked team in the nation.

At the No. 1 spot, Smith and Henry fell in another close match, losing to the 15th-ranked pair of Aleksey Bessonov and Oleksandr Nedovyesov, 9-8.

At No. 2 doubles, Nasemann and Taylor upended Anton Bobytskyi and Eric West, 8-6, improving to 2-0 in dual matches this season.

At the No. 3 slot, Heflin and Ramsay defeated Maximilian Kuhn and Ilia Martinowski, 9-8, improving their doubles record to 2-0 on the young season.

In singles, Ramsay, a senior from Chattanooga, Tenn., upended Martinowski at the No. 3 spot, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Ramsay is now 1-1 in singles this season.

At No. 2 singles, Henry, a sophomore from Signal Mountain, Tenn., took Bobytskyi, the 44th-best singles player in the nation, to three sets. Henry lost the match, 6-2, 4-6, 6-0.

At the No. 5 slot, Hayes forced three sets with Oklahoma State's West, but ultimately fell, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.

At No. 1 singles, Nasemann fell to the nation's 15th-ranked singles player, Nedovyesov, 6-2, 6-3. Nedovyesov has been ranked as high as No. 1 in the country during his successful career in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

At No. 4 singles, Bessonov upended Janz, 7-5, 6-1. Janz falls to 0-2 in singles this season.

At the No. 6 spot, Gaerthoeffner fell, 6-3, 6-2, to Kuhn.

The final tally in the match was Oklahoma State 5, Memphis 2.

The Memphis men's tennis squad will return home to face-off with Kennesaw State on Jan. 29 at 10 a.m., and Murray State on Jan. 30 at 12 p.m. The matches will be held at the Wellworx Sporting Club located at 6161 Shelby Oaks Drive in East Memphis.