The University of Memphis men’s tennis team (14-7, 4-1 American) closed the regular season out with a conference win over the University of Central Florida Knights over the weekend. The win gave the Tigers the 5-seed in the upcoming American Athletic Conference tournament.
The no. 46 ranked Tigers beat the UCF (15-9, 0-3 American) 4-1 in a match that was not closely contested on the scoreboard, but was closely fought on the court. The Tigers fell behind in doubles, but the combination of senior Connor Glennon and freshman Kai Lemke battled the Knights to a tiebreaker and won 7-2 to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
Memphis was able to push their lead further in their singles matches. Frehsman Andrew Watson was the player of the match for the Tigers. He gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead with a 6-2, 6-3 victory. The win was Watson’s 26 singles victory of the season, which gives him the single season record for most wins in a season.
Lemke moved his record to 14-5 on the year after his 6-1, 6-3 singles victory. His sixth straight singles win gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead and a comfortable cushion.
After the Tigers dropped a hard fought set to the Knights, Patrick Mayer closed the match out with a three set 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win. It’s the second time in three matches that Mayer has had a match clinching come from behind victory.
It’ll be the second time in two years the Tigers and Mustangs meet in the AAC Tournament. Last year, Memphis defeated SMU 4-0 to advance to the conference finals, where they lost 4-3 to the University of South Florida Bulls.
The Tigers are going into the tournament on a hot streak. They have won eight of their last nine matches, and their only loss was to USF last weekend.
This will be Glennon’s last AAC tournament as a Memphis Tiger. The no. 64 ranked player in the country is the only senior on the team, and currently holds the record for the most wins in Tigers men’s tennis history.
Memphis most likely needs to win the AAC Tournament to gain a berth into the NCAA Tournament. They made the Tournament last season and advanced to the second round with a 4-3 win over Drake University. They eventually fell to the University of Illinois, 4-3.
Gaining the 5-seed means the Tigers had a first round bye in the quarterfinals and will play the SMU Mustangs in the first round of the tournament.
The Tigers are 1-0 against the Mustangs this season. They will face off on Friday at 9 a.m. at the University of Tulsa. The winner of this match will probably face top seeded USF on Saturday at 9 a.m., Memphis lost to USF 4-0 last weekend.
The tennis tournament can be streamed for free over the American Athletic Conference website it starts on Thursday at 9 a.m.
Connor Glennon will hope to lead the Memphis Tigers men’s tennis team back to the American Athletic Conference Championship finals as he did last season. Memphis fell to the University of South Florida 4-3 in the final round. Photo by Joe Murphy
