The University of Memphis men's tennis team ditched the traditional pastel colors for the Blue and Gray on Easter Sunday and suited up to play in the inaugural American Athletic Conference Tournament Championship match. In a thrilling contest that came down to the final singles game, the Tigers lost to the University of South Florida 4-3.
The championship was a meeting between the top-two seeded teams in the tournament, who have plenty of history playing each other, including the Tigers' win over the Bulls the week before on April 13 at the Racquet Club of Memphis.
Head coach Paul Goebel spoke highly of the Tigers' opponent after the match.
"Give South Florida a lot of credit, they are well coached and Matt Hill has done a great job, and they came out fighting," Goebel said. "It was tough, playing them a week ago on the same courts. To beat somebody, when it was so close the first time, two times in a row it was just a little too much for us today."
Both teams gained momentum in the tournament with lopsided wins leading up to the final. USF shut out the University of Connecticut 4-0 in their match Friday, followed by a 4-1 win over the University of Louisville Saturday.
The Tigers earned a bye with the top-overall seed and shut out Southern Methodist University in their match Saturday.
In doubles play against SMU, the Tigers' nationally-ranked pair of seniors David O'Hare and Joe Salisbury were upset by Mischa Nowicki and Arkidjas Slobodkins in an 8-5 defeat. Memphis picked up the doubles point, however, after winning the next two matches.
In singles play, the Tigers swept the Mustangs with wins by junior Connor Glennon, O'Hare and senior Ian Chadwell to advance to the final.
Sunday the Tigers made their third-consecutive conference championship game - the previous two came in Conference USA. The home teams' doubles play was strong and earned them a point with two victories. First, Glennon and his partner senior Cedric De Zutter won their match, followed by the pairing of senior Johnny Grimal and Chadwell.
After the 1-0 lead, the Bulls evened up the score with a win in a singles match by the conference tournament's Most Outstanding Tournament Performer Roberto Cid, who did not lose a singles match or a doubles match throughout the tournament.
USF jumped out to a 3-1 lead after another singles win. Despite the impending elimination, the Tigers rallied with singles match wins by Chadwell and senior David O'Leary to tie the match at 3-3. In the final match, Salisbury won his first set 6-4, but the senior dropped the next two sets to Oliver Pramming as the Bulls earned the AAC conference title and the automatic NCAA bid that comes with it.
"We are still a team to be reckoned with," Goebel said. "We will take a couple of days off and get back to some serious conditioning and then back to practice. We look forward to the selection show and see where we go. We hope to follow up our run that we had last year and try to repeat that and maybe do better."
