Jan. 24, 2007

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The University of Memphis men's tennis team is coming off a strong opening weekend at the USF Invitational, and will use that to open the dual spring season in a pair of road contests at ranked opponents this weekend. Memphis will play at No. 41 Tennessee, Friday, and at No. 63 Vanderbilt, Sunday.

"We had a really good weekend of practice at the USF tournament," head coach Paul Goebel said. "The three days of practice matches at USF was better than a week of practice for us because it gave our new guys the opportunity to see what dual play was going to be like and it allowed us to play some different doubles combinations to see how we might team together for our season-opener at Tennessee."

Memphis faced three teams that have all spent time in the national rankings over the past three seasons, including Auburn, which is currently ranked No. 40 in the country.

How well the weekend's preparation helped Memphis will get tested in the Tigers' first dual match of the spring, when the Tigers travel to Knoxville to face the Volunteers in both team's spring dual season opener. That match will begin at 2 p.m. (ET).

Tennessee is led by No. 24 Bobby Cameron, who was 15-4 during the fall, and 7-4 against opponents ranked in the latest top 100 poll. Cameron faced Benedikt Fischer at the Volunteer State classic, picking up a win in straight sets. He is one of two Volunteers in the national rankings as teammate Kaden Hensel (No. 35) was also 15-4 through the fall tournament schedule, with a 4-3 mark against ranked foes on his fall slate of results. Hensel did not play against the Tigers in the Volunteer State Challenge. The duo of Cameron and Hensel together is the No. 5 ranked doubles team in the country after the duo advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITA Southeast Regional before falling 8-5 to a team from San Diego State.

After facing the Volunteers in Knoxville, Memphis will then head west on I-40, and will stop in Nashville to take on No. 63 Vanderbilt, Sunday, at 1 p.m.

Vanderbilt is led by junior Ryan Preston, an SEC first-team all-conference honoree as a sophomore who was 12-7 at No. 1 singles last year and who is ranked No. 55 in the country in singles in the most recent FILA/ITA tennis singles rankings. Fellow junior Evan Dufaux is also in the national singles rankings, carrying a ranking of No. 97 in to Vanderbilt's season-opening dual match against Tennessee Tech, Wednesday. Dufaux will be a familiar face to one Tiger, as Tiger freshman Charlie Ramsay defeated Dufaux 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 at the Volunteer State Challenge.

The Commodores will have two regular season matches under their belt by the time the Tigers come to town, as Vandy hosts Tennessee Tech, Wednesday, then hosts No. 55 Western Michigan, Saturday, before Memphis rolls in for its Sunday match.

The Tigers' strongest results through the fall season came from a pair of doubles teams. Former junior college teammates Amrit Narasimhan and Benedikt Fischer finished the tournament season, including the USF tournament, with an 8-6 overall record in doubles. That was one win better than the team of Jimmy Khougassian and Charlie Ramsay, who were 7-6 at the end of the tournament schedule. Both teams will look to continue their strong play, but with the doubles matches all counting for just one point in dual season play, Memphis will need to get results throughout its singles line-up.

And it will be almost an entirely new singles line-up for Memphis, with the graduation of James Spence and with Sam Withell and Matt Brewer not returning to the line-up. Mixed with Michael Jetter, who completed his eligibility last season, all four of those players played some matches at No. 1 singles last season, and pretty much anchored the top four singles slots throughout the season.

The only returnee from last year's team is sophomore Tezar Putra, who played in 12 dual matches, and senior Garrison Pilant, who played in 15 matches. Putra was 2-1 at No. 4 and 1-1 at No. 6, but was 0-7 at No. 5 singles. Pilant carried a 1-7 mark at No. 5 and a 2-5 mark at No. 6 at the end of last year.

Both of those returning players will be trying to fit in with a line-up that features six new players. Two of the newcomers, Benedikt Fischer and Charlie Ramsay, finished the tournament schedule with five singles wins to lead the team. Spencer Heflin and Amrit Narasimhan were right behind that duo with four singles wins throughout the fall, while Jimmy Khougassian had three wins.

The weekend road swing against two ranked foes marks the first of nine nationally-ranked opponents for Memphis, eight of which will be played on the road.

Memphis will opens its 2007 spring home season against UT Martin, Feb. 3rd.