Feb. 26, 2004

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The No. 69 University of Memphis men's tennis team (4-2 overall) will get its first look at fellow Conference USA competitors in the Inter Conference Tournament, beginning Friday. Memphis is playing in the tournament hosted by No. 45 Tulane, beginning with a Friday match against Southern Miss, beginning at 10 a.m.

The Tigers and the Golden Eagles will start the tournament off, to be followed by UAB vs. Saint Louis at 2 p.m. Host Tulane will play the winner of the Tigers/Golden Eagles match at noon, Saturday.

The Inter Conference tournament is hosted at two sites. No 35 USF, No. 45 Tulane, No. 69 Memphis, UAB, Southern Miss and Saint Louis make up the Tulane tournament, while No. 6 TCU will host No. 56 Louisville, Charlotte, DePaul, East Carolina and Marquette. The tournaments were set by each team's finish in last year's conference tournament.

Southern Miss is off to a 1-2 record so far this spring, with both losses coming to top 30 opponents. USM was shutout by then-No. 17 LSU in their season opener, then fell in a tough 4-3 match at then-No. 28 Auburn. The Golden Eagles put their first win in the books for 2004 against Samford, 4-3.

USM brings a young roster into Friday's match, but do not expect the Tigers' to rest on their laurels against a roster of just one junior, two sophomores and four freshmen. Junior David Canudas has already taken out one ranked opponent at No. 1 singles, downing then-No. 40 Gabor Zoltan Pelva of Auburn in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. Canudas is 2-1 at No. 1 singles, with the lone loss being a 6-3, 6-4 loss to then No. 33 Ken Skupski from LSU.

With such a young line-up, the Golden Eagles have really toyed with the remainder of the line-up outside of Canudas at No. 1. Freshman Juan Garzon, sophomore Marc-Oliver Lux and freshman Thomas Funke have all played one match at No. 2 singles, with Lux falling 6-3, 7-5 against Auburn and Garzon picking up the only win at No. 2 for now with a 6-0, 6-4 win against Samford.

Lux and Garzon have also alternated in the No. 3 slot with Garzon playing two matches at No. 3, but with Lux playing at 3 in the most recent match. Freshman Chris Rea is a solid 2-1 at No. 4 singles for USM Head Coach Teddy Viator. Rea's only loss was a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Bryan Fisher of LSU, and Rea downed Auburn's Robert Lathouwers, 1-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Sophomore Reid Bourgeois brings an 0-3 mark at No. 5 singles into the weekend, and will be looking to get his season back on track against the Tigers. Dylan Mezey, a freshman from Canada, rounds out the USM singles line-up with a 2-1 mark at No. 6 singles, including a 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 6 against Auburn.

In doubles, the team of Funke and Bourgeois are 0-3, but have faced stiff competition already, falling 8-3 to the No. 33 ranked team in the nation against LSU in the season-opener. Canudas and Rea are 1-2 at No. 2 doubles, while Melzey and Lux are 0-3 at No. 3 doubles. Look for USM to focus strongly on getting off to a strong doubles start to get momentum for some battles in the singles draw.

The Tigers' are led by senior Lee Taylor Walker (Jackson, Tenn./University School of Jackson), who dropped down to No. 76 in the country in singles in the most recent rankings. Walker has rebounded from his only singles loss of the year (to now No. 37 Simon Rea of Tennessee), to win his last five matches at No. 1, including a straight set win at Middle Tennessee last Friday. A win over Canudas from Southern Miss should help Walker's singles rankings, since Canudas' win over Pelva of Auburn only dropped Pelva to No. 60 in the country.

If the Tigers can get by Southern Miss, they would draw a tough second round match against host Tulane. Tulane has two players ranked in the top 50 in the country, including No. 11 Michael Kogan and No. 41 Dmitriy Koch, who advanced to the finals of the ITA Southeast Regional hosted by the Tigers during the fall after eliminating Walker in the semifinals. Kogan is a senior who started college tennis after three years in the Israeli army, so he brings considerable experience and maturity into big matches, while Koch is rebounding from early spring injuries.

C-USA Inter Conference Tournament Schedule (at Tulane University)
Friday
Match 1 - No. 3 Memphis vs. No. 6 Southern Miss, 10 a.m.
Match 2 - No. 4 UAB vs. No. 5 Saint Louis, 2 p.m.
Saturday
Match 3 - No. 1 Tulane vs. winner Memphis/Southern Miss, noon
Match 4 - No. 2 USF vs. winner UAB/Saint Louis, 3 p.m.
Match 5 - Loser Memphis/Southern Miss vs. Loser UAB/Saint Louis, 9 a.m.
Sunday
Match 6 -Match 3 winner vs. Match 4 winner, noon
Match 7 - Match 3 loser vs. Match 4 loser, 9 a.m.