March 29, 2009

BOISE, Idaho - The Memphis men's tennis team wrapped up their trip to the Boise State Invitational on Saturday, finishing their weekend excursion with a mark of 1-2, which moves their overall record to 12-8. The Tigers opened the weekend with a 4-3 defeat of the Ball State Cardinals. The U of M lost the next two matches, falling at the hands of No. 23 Boise State, 4-1, and Fresno Pacific, 5-2.

Despite the two losses, the Memphis men's tennis team is still on pace to produce one of their best seasons in recent history. The Tigers finished the 2004-05 season with a record of 15-11, while they were 16-9 in 2002-03. The 2008-09 season has been the best so far for fifth-year head coach Paul Goebel. Goebel's inaugural Memphis squad was 12-11 in 2004-05, this is the first time since then that one of his squads has eclipsed the 10-win plateau.

No. 5 singles netter Michael Hayes, a first-year transfer from London, England, finished the weekend with a 3-0 mark picking up wins over his opponents from Ball State, Boise State and Fresno Pacific. Hayes' record now stands at 11-2 in his first season with the squad at the U of M.

At No. 1 singles, Jorge Vazquez had a rough weekend losing three matches to very good competition. Vazquez, the 82nd-ranked singles player in the nation, began the weekend on Friday with a loss to Eduardo Pavia of Ball State. Pavia is 9-4 after the defeat of Vazquez. The win was the second of the season for the Cardinal freshman over a ranked opponent. Pavia upended No. 119 Tobias Reitz of Northwestern earlier in the season. Vazquez also fell to 78th-ranked Kean Feeder of Boise State and Fabio Silva of Fresno Pacific, who has produced a 14-1 record for the No. 4-ranked NAIA team in the nation. Vazquez is now 11-8 on the season.

Along with Hayes, the rest of the bottom of the line-up also did very well to help catapult the Tigers past the Cardinals from Ball State. Charlie Ramsay upended Jorge Rodriguez, 7-5, 7-6 at the No. 4 position. Leon Nasemann also walked away victorious with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Andres Monroy at No. 3 singles. Michael Gaerthoeffner defeated his opponent at No. 6 singles, 6-4, 6-4.

The Tigers' doubles netters had key wins against Fresno Pacific, winning two of three matches to give the U of M the doubles point. At No. 2 doubles, Leon Nasemann and Jorge Vazquez defeated Marco Foelz and Maxime Adam, 8-2. At the No. 3 spot, Benedikt Fischer and Jordan Smith came away with a 9-8 win over Favio Silva and Jose Hilla.

The Tigers have only a hand-full of matches left on the season. Coach Goebel's netters will head to the Sun Belt Shootout in Murfreesboro on April 3. The U of M will finish up the regular season on April 11 with a home match against UAPB before they head to the C-USA Tournament on April 17.