Jan. 7, 2004

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -

Head Coach Phil Chamberlain (86-49) will have his hands full in the quest for his 100th career win with a 2004 Tiger tennis schedule that features at least seven nationally-ranked teams and just six regular season home matches. The Tigers will compete in two tournaments that may increase the number of ranked opponents, depending on how the draw advances. The Tigers' 2004 regular season will culminate on the HYPER Courts on the University of Memphis campus when the Tigers host the C-USA Men's Tennis Championships, Apr. 14-18.

The Tigers, which closed the 2003 season ranked No. 70 in the country, will open at No. 55 Tennessee, January 24th in a non-conference match-up. It will be the first meeting between the two teams since 2002. Memphis will also face in-state foe UT-Martin, junior Marten Tamla's former team, in Knoxville on the 24th.

The Tigers will stop in Cookeville, Tenn., the following day for a non-conference match against Tennessee Tech before returning for their home opener, Feb. 6th, against Illinois State. That meeting will be the first-ever meeting between a Phil Chamberlain-coached team and the school from Normal, Ill.

The Tigers will then face No. 69 Middle Tennessee in Murfreesboro after picking up an exciting 4-3 thriller over the Blue Raiders, the alma mater of assistant coach Paul Goebel, on the U of M courts last season. The 2003 match against the Blue Raiders was determined in the Tigers' favor when Alex Bucewicz edged a former junior tennis competitor from his native Australia in back-to-back tiebreakers.

The Tigers will travel to Clarksville, Tenn., following the Middle Tennessee match to face the Eagles of Tennessee Tech. Memphis has won each of the last three meetings over the past three years against Tennessee Tech, 6-1, and are 3-0 against the Eagles under Chamberlain. All of Conference USA will then compete in the Inter Conference tournaments hosted by either Tulane or TCU. The Tigers will travel to New Orleans, home of the No. 14 ranked team in the country. Memphis will face Southern Miss, Feb. 27th, with the winner advancing to face No. 14 Tulane, Feb. 28th. No. 38 South Florida, UAB and Saint Louis will round out the Tulane tournament, while the remainder of the C-USA teams will compete at TCU.

Following the Inter-Conference tournament, Memphis will swing over to Corpus Christi, Texas, to compete in the HEB Invitational, hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Memphis last competed in the tournament in 2002, upsetting No. 3 seed UNLV and No. 2 seed Louisville to earn a finals berth against Middle Tennessee, before the finals were rained out.

Memphis then returns home for a pair of back-to-back matches, starting with a Mar. 9th match against No. 73 Indiana State. Memphis is 0-2 against the Sycamores in Chamberlain's previous five seasons, including a 5-2 loss in Terre Haute last year. Following the 2003 loss, the Indiana State head coach nominated the Tigers for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Team Sportsmanship Award, which they received in April of 2003.

The following day, the Tigers will welcome C-USA foe Charlotte to campus, as the 49ers were the only C-USA team to book a visit to the on-campus facility during the regular season. The two teams were scheduled to face one another in the fifth-place match at last year's C-USA tournament, but the 49ers ran into travel problems as rain pushed the 2003 tournament indoors, forcing Charlotte to forfeit all its matches.

Memphis then travels to Houston, Texas, for a trio of matches against nationally-ranked opponents, starting with No. 29 Rice University, Mar. 12th. Rice, who will become a C-USA school in 2005-2006, owns the win from the only other meeting between the two schools from 2000.

Following the Rice match, the Tigers will face No. 52 Virginia Tech, Mar. 13th, and No. 62 Texas Tech on the 14th. Virginia Tech won the only other meeting with the Tigers, 6-1, last season in Virginia and this will be the first-ever meeting between a Chamberlain-coached Memphis squad and Texas Tech.

The Tigers will travel to Jacksonville, Ala., for a Mar. 27th non-conference match, before continuing on to Atlanta, Ga., to face Georgia State on the 28th. This will be the Tigers' first-ever meeting with Jacksonville under Chamberlain, while the Tigers are 3-0 against the Panthers of Georgia State over the past three seasons, including a 6-1 win in Memphis last year.

The Tigers will return home to face Murray State on Apr. 1st to tune-up for a non-conference match at Arkansas-Little Rock, Apr. 8th. UALR is 4-0 against Memphis under Chamberlain, including a 4-2 win in Memphis last year.

Memphis will round out its regular season and its schedule against ranked opponents with a home match against No. 71 New Orleans, Apr. 10th. Memphis and New Orleans have alternated wins and losses over the past four years, with New Orleans winning at home last year, 5-2. That match will also be the last regular season home match for senior Lee Taylor Walker, the Tigers' only senior on the 2004 roster.

The Tigers will then host the C-USA Championships on the HYPER Courts on campus, Apr. 14-18th. The winner of the C-USA Tournament will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, starting with the NCAA Regionals, May 15-16th. The NCAA Championships will be held May 22-31st in Tulsa, Okla.

Memphis may have as many as 10 players on its 2004 spring roster, led by the team's only senior, Walker. The junior class will consist of Bucewicz, Tamla, Mark Finnegan and Andrew Olswing, while Alex Jago and James Spence make up the sophomore class.

Memphis finished with a 16-9 record in 2003, finishing fifth at the C-USA Tournament in Milwaukee, Wis. Three Tigers earned all-conference honors (Walker, Ben Stapp and Joe Schmulian) and Schmulian earned a C-USA Sportsmanship Award. The Tigers earned their third straight team academic honor from the ITA in the summer of 2003.