Men's Tennis Hosts C-USA Rival Memphis Saturday

[PonyPride]

Men's Tennis Hosts C-USA Rival Memphis Saturday

Skrypko Will Look to Extend His Winning Streak to Eight



March 28, 2008

DALLAS (SMU)--The SMU men's tennis team returns home this weekend to host Conference USA rival Memphis on Saturday, March 29 at noon. The match will take place on the new Turpin Center courts, located on SMU's campus.

Scouting the Mustangs: SMU is 13-7 on the season, after a loss to No. 18 Baylor Thursday night. As a team, the Mustangs are 83-37 (.692) in singles and 27-19 (.587) in doubles. The Mustangs are led by Alex Skrypko who is riding a seven-match singles winning streak (11-6 overall) and a five-match doubles winning streak (8-4 overall). Adolfo Solares is back to his winning ways after an injury sidelined him for a few matches earlier this season. Solares has won his last two-straight singles matches and improved to 9-2 on the season. The Mustangs have been without the services of Robin Fahgen (11-5 singles) the last two matches, but will look for him to rejoin the lineup soon.

Last Time Out: SMU fought a closely-contested battle with No. 18 Baylor Thursday night, falling 5-2 to the Bears. The loss snapped a four-match winning streak. The match was closer than the score would indicate, as the Mustangs narrowly lost the doubles point and nearly eked out wins in two additional singles matches. Skrypko and Solares paired at No. 1 to defeat Attila Bucko and Dominik Mueller in dramatic fashion, 9-8 (7-4). Taylor St. Eve and Darren Walsh made it exciting for the Ponies, but fell at No. 3 to Jordan Rux and Gwen Corches, 8-6. In singles, Skyrpko won his match at No. 2 in straight sets, and Oivind Alver nearly overtook Corches at No. 3, but fell in three close sets. Solares bounced back to take his match at No. 5, but a tough three-set loss at No. 6 sealed the match for the Bears.


Scouting the Tigers: The Tigers are 6-9 this season with losses to Southeastern Louisiana, Vanderbilt, San Diego, Mississippi, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, UAB and Tulsa. As a team, Memphis is 43-43 (.500) in singles and 24-17 (.585) in doubles. The Tigers are led by Benedikt Fischer (9-4), M. Gaerthoeffner (9-6) and Leon Nasemann (8-5) in singles. Fischer predominantly plays at the sixth spot, where he boasts an 8-4 record and is 5-3 in the last 10 matches. Gaerthoeffner is 7-4 at No. 4, and Nasemann splits his time between the second and third slots. In doubles, Amrit Narasimhan pairs with Charlie Ramsay at No. 1, where the duo has notched a 7-7 record and has dropped the last two contests. The Tigers have their greatest success at No. 2, where the team has notched a .643 winning percentage. Spencer Heflin and Nasemann split the position with Jimmy Khougassian and Naseman. Heflin/Naseann are 4-1 this spring, while Khougassian/Nasemann are 5-4.

About the Turpin Center: This will be the first match held on the Turpin Center courts, which are located on SMU's campus, adjacent to the Crum Center and Moody Coliseum, just south of the intersection of Binkley and Dublin.

On the Horizon: The Mustangs will host Southeastern Louisiana at 2pm on April 2. Four days later, SMU hosts a double-header with C-USA rival No. 22 Rice at noon and Grambling State at 4pm on April 6.

Results and recap will be available on SMUMustangs.com following the match.