April 5, 2008

Box Score

The University of Memphis men's tennis team (7-12, 1-3 C-USA) picked up their first Conference USA victory of the season with a 4-3 road win at Southern Miss, Saturday.

The match was tightly-contested from the start, as both teams picked up a doubles win. The draw meant that the decision of the No. 2 match would determine who took the 1-0 lead in to the singles play and the match went to a tiebreak, which the Memphis tandem of Jimmy Khougassian and Leon Nasemann won 7-5 to win the match 9-8 and to put the Tigers up 1-0 early.

Freshman Michael Gaerthoeffner was the last Tiger match left on the court with the score tied at 3-3. Gaerthoeffre and Southern Miss' Diego Machuca split the first two sets and played a tight third set, needing a tiebreak to sort matters out. Gaerthoeffer prevailed in the tiebreak, 8-6, to win his match at No. 4 singles and to give the Tigers their first league victory of the season.

The Tigers will play at UALR, Wednesday, in non-conference play. That match will begin at 2 p.m. Memphis will play its final home match of the season Friday against Middle Tennessee. That match will be played at Rhodes College and will begin at 2 p.m.

Memphis 4, Southern Miss 3
Doubles
No. 1 - Amrit Narasimhan/Charlie Ramsay (UM) def. Diego Machuca/Markus Wessinghage, 8-5
No. 2 - Jimmy Khougassian/Leon Nasemann (UM) def. Jan Burmeister/Andrew Poole, 9-8 (7-5)
No. 3 - Domagoj Anic/Oscar Machuca def. Spencer Heflin/Jordan Smith (UM), 8-6
Singles
No. 1 - Amrit Narasimhan (UM) def. Domagoj Anic, 6-2, 6-4
No. 2 - Andrew Poole def. Leon Nasemann (UM), 2-6, 7-5, 6-4
No. 3 - Jan Burmeister def. Jimmy Khougassian (UM), 6-1, 7-6 (7-5)
No. 4 - Michael Gaerthoeffner (UM) def. Diego Machuca, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6)
No. 5 - Oscar Machuca def. Charlie Ramsay (UM), 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-4
No. 6 - Benedikt Fischer (UM) def. Markus Wessinghage, 6-3, 6-3