USF Men’s Tennis Defeats Top-Seed Memphis 4-3; Advances to Fifth Straight AAC Tournament Final

The only men’s tennis champion the American Athletic Conference has ever known is only one step away from once again successfully defending their crown.

No. 5 seed USF took down No. 1 seed Memphis in the American conference tourney semifinals in Dallas on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s championship match where they will face Tulane.

USF went match-for-match with the No. 18 ranked Tigers on Saturday, all coming down to the showdown on court 4 between Pierre Luquet and Chris Patzanovsky.

Alberto Barroso-Campos and Grayson Goldin claimed the first point for USF with a 6-3 victory over Ryan Peniston and Andrew Watson but Memphis would strike back when Jan Pallares defeated Sean Burnette in straight sets (6-2, 6-0).

Jakub Wojcik would put the Bulls back on top with a triumph over Felix Rauch (6-2, 6-4) but Memphis’ Watson tied things at 2-2 with a win over USF’s Peter Bertran on court 2 (6-3, 6-4).

The combo of Bertran and Wojcik downed the Tiger duo of Rauch and Kai Lemke 6-2 to give the four-time defending conference champs yet another advantage until Peniston grabbed a singles victory over Barroso-Campos (7-5, 6-4).

That’s when the senior Frenchman Luquet came through big for the Green and White, knocking off the German-born Patzanovsky (6-4, 7-6) to propel USF towards the title game.

Since the creation of the league, the Bulls have indeed NEVA LOST in the conference tournament, posting a perfect 14-0 record.

They will try to get a bit of revenge on a Tulane team that defeated them 6-1 in New Orleans just a few weeks ago on April 8.

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