Jan. 7, 2009

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Jorge Vazquez, a senior from La Coruna, Spain, was honored in the 2009 ITA Pre-Season Rankings as the 103rd-best tennis player in the nation. Vazquez who will begin his first season with the Tigers in 2009 after sitting out 2008 as a transfer, finished his first fall with a record of 10-3. He was also selected as the 26th-rated singles player in the Southeast region.

Vazquez helped make a name for himself this fall with defeats of ranked competitors, such as No. 80 Vijay Paul of Vanderbilt and No. 77 Carlos Alvarez of Clemson. He also became the first Memphis Tiger men's tennis player since Women's tennis coach Lee Taylor Walker in 2003 to win four matches at a National Championship. Vazquez is the first men's tennis player to earn a national ranking since Amrit Narasimhan earned a fall pre-season ranking in 2007. He is the first men's tennis player to be ranked in the spring since Alex Bucewicz was ranked 124th at the end of the 2005 season.

Women's tennis players Marjorie Ondeck and Ashley Murdock were also recognized in the pre-season region rankings. Ondeck and Murdock will begin the season as the No. 13 doubles team in the Southeast region. Ondeck and Murdock caught the eyes of many with their performance in the fall at the 2008 ITA Southeast Regional in Winston Salem, N.C. The duo beat teams from No. 12 Clemson, No. 17 North Carolina and No. 25 Tennessee on their way to the Semifinal round of the doubles competition. Murdock and Ondeck ended the fall with a mark of 7-5.

The men's tennis squad will travel to Tampa, Fla., this weekend to partake in the South Florida Invitational as a tune-up before they open the dual season at Rice on Jan. 16. The women's tennis team opens the season on Jan. 22 at perennial power Georgia, who begins the 2009 season ranked 6th in the nation.