Oct. 7, 2008

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Memphis men's tennis player Jorge Vazquez advanced to the first round of qualifying at the 2008 D'Nova ITA All-American Tournament at the Michael Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Vazquez is the first men's tennis player to win four matches at the ITA All-American tournament in singles since current women's tennis coach Lee Taylor Walker did so in 2003.

Much like Walker, Vazquez lost his fifth match. The senior from La Coruna, Spain was defeated in the first round of the qualifying portion of the singles tournament where Vazquez lost to Gera Boryachinskiy of Clemson. Boryachinskiy is currently ranked as the No. 88 singles player in the nation. Boryachinskiy upended No. 26 Dominic Inglot of West Virginia last spring. Vazquez played Boryachinksiy to a first set tiebreaker but ended up losing the set, 7-6(5), the second round was won by Boryachinskiy, 6-4.

Vazquez won four matches on his way to the qualifying round of the tournament. In the first round of play, Vazquez defeated Rob West of Cleveland State, 6-4.6-2. West was 12-10 in singles play last year for CSU. In his second round match, Vazquez upended Drake's Mauricio Ballivian, 6-2, 6-1. Ballivian was 18-5 for the Bulldogs last year, while playing primarily at the No. 4 position. In the third round of competition, Vazquez won 6-4, 7-5, over Texas A&M's Chris Chirico. Chirico has been ranked as high as No. 90 in the nation in singles. In his fourth round match, Vazquez won the first set over Sebastian Gallego, 6-1, but lost the second set 2-6. Vazquez went on to win the match, upending Gallego in the final set, 6-3.

"It was a great tournament to get our players some more experience against some top competition," said Memphis Head Coach Paul Goebel. "I am very pleased with the way that Jorge (Vazquez) played. I thought he just had some things not go his way coming into the match against Clemson's player, but overall I thought he played very well."

Memphis also had two other competitors at the D'Novo ITA All-American Tournament, Michael Gaerthoeffner and Leon Nasemann. Both players had first round byes. In Nasemann's first round match, he was defeated by Oleksandr Kotsuik of Oral Roberts, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Kotsuik played No. 1 for the Golden Eagles last season. Gaerthoeffner fell to George Chanturia of Oklahoma, 6-3, 7-6(7)

Memphis returns to the court for the UNF Fall Invite in Jacksonville, Fla. Coach Goebel will send three players; K.C. Griffin, Jordan Smith and Spencer Heflin to the tournament which will take place from Oct. 10 until Oct. 12.