April 14, 2003

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The University of Memphis men's tennis team (13-8, 2-1 C-USA) earned the No. 5 seed for the Conference USA Championships that begin Wednesday in Milwaukee, Wis. The Tigers draw No. 12 seed DePaul for their opening round match-up, with the winner advancing to face No. 3 seed South Florida at 9 a.m., Thursday.

No. 1 seed Tulane, No. 2 seed TCU, No. 3 seed South Florida and No. 4 seed Louisville all received first-round byes in the tournament. Tulane will face the winner of the No. 8 Charlotte/No.9 Saint Louis match, Louisville will face the winner of the No. 6 Southern Miss/No. 11 Marquette match and TCU will face the winner of the No. 7 UAB/No. 10 East Carolina match.

"I like where we are sitting," Tiger Head Coach Phil Chamberlain said. "We have a great opportunity to do well in the draw we are in, but we'll need to get our confidence going right away in that first match."

The Tigers' first match against DePaul (4-17) is slated for 9 a.m., Thursday. "I like us playing the first matches of the morning," Chamberlain said. "Even in the case of bad weather, we're still guaranteed to get our matches in, so we should be well prepared for our matches."

The Blue Demons bring a young team to the 2003 championships, with just one senior and no juniors on their roster. While this will be the first meeting between the two programs this season, they have had some common opponents. DePaul was defeated by Marquette, 5-2, on April 2nd, a team that Memphis swept 4-0 at the C-USA Inner Conference tournament in Florida. The Tigers will be the sixth nationally-ranked opponents of the year for DePaul, having faced Northwestern, Michigan State, Ohio State, Western Michigan and the University of Michigan already this year.

But the Tigers will want to avoid a repeat of last year, when they were seeded fourth in the tournament but were upended by No. 5 seed Louisville and then upset by No. 7 seed DePaul in the consolation bracket.

Memphis, ranked No. 67 in the country heading into the tournament, would need a deep run in the tournament to try to bolster their rankings for consideration for the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the Conference USA tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Memphis has never competed in the team portion of the NCAAs and has not sent an individual to the NCAAs since the 1970s.

C-USA Men's Tennis Tournament Seedings
No. 1 Tulane
No. 2 TCU
No. 3 South Florida
No. 4 Louisville
No. 5 Memphis
No. 6 Southern Miss
No. 7 UAB
No. 8 Charlotte
No. 9 Saint Louis
No. 10 East Carolina
No. 11 Marquette
No. 12 DePaul

First Round Match-ups
Wednesday, 10 a.m.
No. 8 Charlotte vs. No. 9 Saint Louis
No. 5 Memphis vs. No. 12 DePaul
Wednesday, 1 p.m.
No. 6 Southern Miss vs. No. 11 Marquette
No. 7 UAB vs. No. 10 East Carolina