Sept. 17, 2003

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - After winning one consolation final and making an appearance in another, the Memphis men's tennis team will head to the Southern Intercollegiate Championships looking to advance deeper in the championship draws against some of the top teams in the Southeast, beginning Friday. Four of the top five collegiate teams in the country in last season's final poll will be participating in this weekend's tournament, including No. 2 Florida, No. 4 Vanderbilt, No. 8 Mississippi and No. 9 Duke. Six of the nation's Top 25 teams will be at the tournament and 13 of the 25 participating teams were nationally-ranked in the top 75 last year, including No. 70 Memphis.

The complete tournament draw will be available late Wednesday or Thursday, but expect to see senior Lee Taylor Walker and junior Alex Bucewicz back in the battle for the top spots in the draw. Walker went 1-1 last weekend at the Middle Tennessee Championships, falling to UALR's Bastian Faisst, 6-3, 6-2. Bucewicz also fell to a UALR team member, No. 3 seeded Sebastian Falk, 6-1, 6-1. Bucewicz is 2-1 in singles heading into this weekend's matches.

A trio of Tigers participated in Flight Two singles last weekend. Junior Marten Tamla finished the weekend with a 3-1 mark, dropping his opening match before winning three straight to claim the Flight Two Consolation Singles title. Also in action in either the second or third portion of the draw this weekend will be junior Mark Finnegan (2-1) and freshman James Spence (3-1). Spence was a quarterfinalist in Flight Two singles at MTSU, while Finnegan fell to eventual Flight Two Champ Kai Schledorn from MTSU, 6-2, 6-2.

Memphis had another newcomer advance to the consolation finals, when walk-on Trey Brower advanced to the Flight Three consolation singles event, where he fell 9-7.

The 2003 Southern Intercollegiate Championships will be played at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex beginning Thursday, Sept. 19. The four-day event features more than 140 players from 25 teams from all over the southeast. Georgia has hosted the Southern Intercollegiate Championship, which was created by former Bulldog head coach Dan Magill and is the oldest and largest fall tournament in the South, for the past 35 years. The 2003 edition will return to the traditional singles and doubles flights after a round-robin format was used in 2002 due to construction at the tennis facility.

Memphis will open its home season in the ITA Southeast Regional, Oct. 16-19 at The Racquet Club of Memphis.