Oct. 2, 2008

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Three members of the Memphis men's tennis team are poised to compete against some of the nation's best collegiate tennis players when they hit the courts of the Michael D. Case Tennis Center for the D'Novo All-American Tennis Championships. This is the first singles and doubles championship of the 2008-09 season. 2008 is the fourth straight year that the University of Tulsa has hosted the event.

The event will begin with five days of singles qualifying matches. The field will begin with 256 players which will be cut down to a 128 player singles tournament.

Senior Jorge Vazquez and sophomores Michael Gaerthoeffner and Leon Nasemann will partake in the event which will run from Oct. 3-12. This is Vazquez' first season of competition with the U of M, after transferring from Tyler Junior College in Texas. Vazquez helped lead the Apaches to a No. 2 finish at the 2007 NJCAA Division I National Championships. Gaerthoeffner, a native of Rheine, Germany, was 11-10 in dual matches for the Tigers last season. Nasemann, originally from Wuppertahl, Germany, was 9-9 in singles play last year.

"It will be a fun and exciting week for the guys to see how they fair against the best in the country," said Head Coach Paul Goebel. "It will be a good chance for us to gauge where our team is compared to other teams across the country."

Tiger fans can visit the University of Tulsa athletic webpage at http://tulsahurricane.cstv.com/#00 to view updates of the tournament.