July 27, 2004

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The academic honors continue to roll in for the University of Memphis men's tennis team. The Tigers were one of just 35 men's tennis teams in the country to earn an Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Team Award and also had three student-athletes named ITA Scholar Athletes.

The ITA All-Academic Team Award is awarded to college men's tennis teams that have a cumulative team GPA of 3.2 or higher. UALR, Belmont, Mississippi State and Memphis were the only teams in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee to earn the honor.

Senior Lee Taylor Walker and juniors Andrew Olswing and Alex Bucewicz were all named ITA Scholar Athletes for having a GPA of 3.5 or higher and earning an athletic letter during the 2003-04 season.

The team honor marks the third straight honor for the men's tennis team, which advanced to the Conference USA semifinals for the first time in school history. With the three individual awards, Memphis men's tennis players have now earned seven Scholar Athlete Awards. Olswing and Walker become the first players in Tiger history to earn more than one scholar-athlete award after each was named to the 2003 Scholar Athlete team.

The Tigers earned the Conference USA Sport Academic Award for men's tennis last week.

The University of Memphis men's tennis team will again one of the most prestigious collegiate tennis tournaments when the ITA Southeast Regional returns to The Racquet Club of Memphis Oct. 14-18th. That tournament features a number of nationally-ranked singles and doubles players in one of the strongest regions in college men's tennis.

Last year, Memphis senior Lee Taylor Walker advanced to the singles semifinals, before falling to Dmitriy Koch of Tulane. That was the first-ever appearance in the singles semifinals for a Tiger tennis player. Walker would go on to earn Conference USA First Team honors and would cap his collegiate career ranked No. 95 in the country in singles. Walker will receive one more honor from the ITA before his August graduation date. He will travel to New York City during the US Open to receive the National ITA/Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award on Arthur Ashe Day, Aug. 28th.