Jan. 28, 2010

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis men's tennis team will play their first home matches of the season on Fri., Jan. 29 and Sat., Jan. 30. The Tigers will host the Kennesaw State Owls and the Murray State Racers at Wellworx Sporting Club, located at 6161 Shelby Oaks Drive in Memphis, Tenn. The match with the Owls will begin at 10 a.m., on Friday. Saturday's dual with the Racers will commence at 12 p.m.

Memphis comes into the match with an 0-2 record after two hard-fought losses against No. 25 Oklahoma State, 5-2, and No. 34 Tulsa, 5-2. The Tigers won both doubles points in the matches, but came up just short in singles against their foes.

"It will be nice to play some home matches," said Memphis head coach Paul Goebel. "We will see if we can continue to build on our good play from last weekend against Tulsa and Oklahoma State. I look forward to getting the opportunity to see our team compete against two very talented teams in Kennesaw State and Murray State."

So far, this season the Tigers have been led by their three doubles tandems who come into the match with a 4-2 record in dual play. Memphis' two losses in doubles play came in very competitive matches at the No. 1 doubles spot where the duo of David Henry and Jordan Smith came up just short of winning. Against Oklahoma State, Smith and Henry lost to the nation's 15th-ranked pair of Aleksey Bessonov and Oleksandr Nedovyesov, 9-8. In the match against Tulsa, Smith and Henry fell to the No. 1 duo of Ashley Watling and Philip Stephens, 8-7.

In singles, Leon Nasemann is 1-1 after picking up a key victory over Tulsa's No. 1 player, Stephens, in the opening dual match of the season. Nasemann's only loss so far this season came to 15th-ranked Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, who has been ranked as high as No. 1 in the country during his career. Charlie Ramsay, a senior from Chattanooga, Tenn., also comes into this weekend's matches with a 1-1 mark.

Friday's match will serve as the debut for new Kennesaw State head coach T.J. Greggs. The Director of Tennis operations for the men's and women's tennis teams for the past several years, Greggs assumes the roles as the head man as the Owls' recently decided to create two seperate entities with the men's and women's programs. Former Kennesaw State head coach Brandon Padgett remains as the women's head coach.

The Owls went 7-12 during the 2009 spring dual season. Kennesaw State's roster returns seven players from last year's roster and welcomes three new freshmen to the roster.

Murray State went 8-11 during the 2009 spring dual season. Coach Mel Purcell's squad opened the season witha 7-0 loss at Louisville on Jan. 16. Murray State's top of the line-up is led by juniors Ben Clos and Luka Milicevic.