David Stevenson (above) and his doubles partner, Oscar Cutting, defeated USF’s Pierre Luquet/Barroso Campos. Stevenson/Cutting won the match 6-2, marking the duo’s fourth win against a ranked opponent.
The University of Memphis men’s tennis team went 1-1 over the weekend, hosting Michigan State and Louisiana State University at the Racquet Club of Memphis.
The Tigers started the weekend in spectacular fashion shutting out Michigan State 7-0 on Friday night.
The Tigers got off to a fast start against the Michigan State Spartans, winning their eighth doubles point of the season. They used that momentum to win all six singles matches, five of which came in straight sets.Â
Juniors Matt Story and Jan Pallares were the stars of the show in the first match of the weekend. Story teamed up with red-shirt freshman Jeremy Taylor at No. 3 to register the first doubles rubber turning in a 6-1 victory. Pallares and freshman Patrick Sydow then clinched the doubles point, winning 6-1 at No. 2.
Tigers’ associate head coach Chris Doerr said he was not surprised to see his juniors put on a dominant display Friday night.
“We asked those guys to step up at the start of the year and they’ve done that,†Doerr said. “We’re obviously very happy for both of them to keep winning and I think they’re both really enjoying being on court every day.â€
Story carried his strong play into the singles, racing off court in less than an hour with a 6-0, 6-0 victory. Friday night’s performance was arguably Story’s best ever outing as a Tiger, and he believes his hard work is starting to pay off.
“It’s nice to finally feel some confidence on the singles court,†Story said. “I had a really good fall (season), playing some quite highly ranked players and found myself competing quite well. That gave me a lot of confidence and my hard work has been rewarded by playing in the line-up.â€
Matt Story lunges for a backhand volley in Sunday’s loss against LSU. Story was the best player in the Tigers’ win against Michigan State on Friday night.
Red-shirt freshman David Stevenson continued his good form this season with a 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 4, before Jan Pallares clinched the match at No. 2 with a 6-2, 6-4 victory. Both coaches decided to play the match out, allowing senior Chris Patzanovsky and freshmen Oscar Cutting and Sydow to also collect victories.
The Tigers then turned to their match against LSU. Touted as one of their tougher matches of the season to date, the match did not disappoint. In a marathon dual match that went well over three hours with five of the six singles matches going to third sets, LSU broke the home team’s heart by coming back to win 4-3.
Cutting and Stevenson got the Tigers off to a roaring start with their first collegiate ranked win over No. 30 Rafael Wagner and Joey Thomas. The atmosphere inside the Racquet Club stadium became electric when Pallares and Sydow clinched the doubles point with a tight 6-4 victory at No. 2.
LSU came out firing in singles winning four out of six first sets and it didn’t look good for the Tigers. However, magnificent come from behind second sets from Pallares, Story, and Stevenson meant Memphis was back in the match. Unfortunately for Memphis LSU’s bottom half of the line-up proved to be too strong as they came from 2-1 down to win 4-3.
Chris Patzanovsky turned in another captain’s performance at the top of the line up with 7-6(1), 2-6, 6-4 victory. Patzanovsky was gutted his team came up short, but saw the loss as a great learning experience for the Tigers’ freshmen.
“It’s disappointing,†Patzanovsky said. “LSU is a very good team, but to lose a dog fight like that always hurts. I think we can learn a lot of things out of a match like that and I am proud of the fight our team showed today.â€
Memphis head Coach Paul Goebel knew Sunday’s match would be close as both teams were evenly matched.
“It was a great college tennis match,†Goebel said. “It started with the doubles point which was so competitive. In singles, every court was very, very close and could’ve gone either way. We were just a point or two short today.â€
After the weekend’s results the Tigers’ record stands at 8-2. A string of away matches now awaits them, starting with Dartmouth and Harvard on Feb. 22 and 24.
