In their final home match of the year, the University of Memphis tennis team defeated a tough VCU squad 5-2 over the weekend at the Racquet Club of Memphis.
The 47th ranked Tigers moved to 13-6 overall on the year with the victory over VCU.
“We’re so excited to win our final home match of the year,” coach Paul Goebel said. “VCU played a very good match. I have to give them a lot of credit.”
The Tigers dropped a doubles point for the second straight match, but sophomore Patrick Meyer was able to rebound to a three-set victory.
“We were up on all the courts and they came back on two courts to get that doubles point,” Goebel said. “So it was a little disappointing because we had really been improving and progressing in our doubles and I feel like today we even maybe took a little step back.”
Senior Connor Glennon was in a highly contested match with VCU’s Michal Voscek. The two players were battling left and right. Glennon eventually won in three sets (6-2, 4-6, 7-6), but the outcome was always in doubt.
“It was a strange match. He’s (Glennon) used to holding serve and not breaking a lot,” Goebel said. “In that match, he was breaking a lot and both guys were returning the ball well. It was kind of fun to see he could compete and win even though he wasn’t holding his serve every time like he does. It was a battle.”
The win was in Glennon’s final home match of his career. It took a 6-all tiebreaker in the third set to decide a victor.
“I’m just so proud of him. He’s had such a good career,” Goebel said. “I think he really wanted to win his last match here. He was maybe a little uptight at times. You know he came through at the end when we needed him. That was great to see.”
The senior now has the most wins in Memphis Tigers tennis history after the win.
“That is something I’ve been aware of for a while now, and I’ve been hunting it down,” Glennon said. “Obviously it came down to that final third set. I just thought it was meant to be. To take the accolade home on senior day, I thought it was written in the stars so to speak.”
The Tigers will travel to UCF for a match on Friday, and then they play USF on Sunday. After the two game road trip, Memphis will be preparing for the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
“It could be our toughest road trip of the year next week,” Coach Goebel said, “Central Florida has been playing fantastic tennis and just had a great win. South Florida is pretty much a top 20 team. They won our conference last year and have most of their team back. We know what to expect. It’s going to be two tough ones, but it’s going to be great preparation to get us ready for the next week’s conference championship.”
Connor Glennon, the England native, now has 76 career wins as a Memphis Tiger. That is more than anyone else in University of Memphis tennis history. Photo by Lance Murphey
