Jan. 22, 2010

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -

The Memphis men's tennis team will open the 2010 spring dual season this afternoon with a match against No. 34 Tulsa at 6 p.m., at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla. The Tigers will continue the weekend's action on Sat., Jan. 23 at 12 p.m., when they face No. 25 Oklahoma State at 12 p.m., in Tulsa.

The Tigers are coming off a very successful opening to the season last weekend at the USF Spring Invitational in Tampa, Fla. Memphis ended the weekend with nine singles victories and four doubles wins against competition from UCF, USF and No. 56 Radford. Memphis was led by the No. 1 doubles duo of David Henry and Jordan Smith, who finished the weekend with a perfect 3-0 record.

 Tulsa enters Friday's match with a 3-1 record, after going 1-1 last weekend in dual play. The Golden Hurricane defeated No. 68 SMU on Fri., Jan. 15, 4-3, but fell to No. 40 California on Sun., Jan. 17, 6-1. Tulsa is led by 21st-ranked singles netter Ashley Watling at the No. 1 spot. The sophomore from Ipswich, England, was an All-C-USA second team pick as a freshman in 2009 after putting up a 19-10 singles record, the second-most on a Tulsa team that finished the season ranked 29th in the country.

 Saturday's match will be the first dual match of the season for No. 25 Oklahoma State. The Cowboys finished the 2009 season ranked No. 25 in the country. Leading the way for Oklahoma State in singles will be 15th-ranked Oleksandr Nedovyesov. Nedovyesov finished the 2009 season ranked as the nation's No. 1 singles player after going 20-4 in dual matches last spring. The Cowboys other ranked player is Anton Bobytskyi. The junior from Donetsk, Ukraine, is currently ranked No. 44 in the country according the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.

In doubles, Nedovyesov and Aleksey Bessonov come into the match ranked 15th in the nation.

Today's match with Tulsa will be available via live webstream on Tulsa's website. Visit the Tulsa men's tennis website by clicking here and click on the live stats/video link on the left side of the screen.