April 21, 2006

Tulsa, Okla. - Championship host and No. 3 seed Tulsa registered a 4-0 victory over No. 6 seed Memphis in the third quarterfinal of the 2006 Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. The 42nd-ranked Golden Hurricane worked overtime for the doubles point before controlling the singles play against the Tigers. Tulsa will face the winner of Friday's fourth quarterfinal between No. 2 seed SMU and No. 7 seed East Carolina on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT.

The Tulsa duo of Arnau Brugues and Aleksander Charpantidis took a third-set tiebreaker from the 41st-ranked Memphis team of James Spence and Sam Withell in the decisive doubles match to earn the point before the squad posted a trio of straight set victories in singles play to wrap up the victory.

Brugues and Charpantidis broke the Memphis serve after trailing 8-7 to force the tiebreaker before winning the extra session by a score of 7-2. Andy Connelly and Ross Cunningham secured the other doubles match for Tulsa with an 8-0 triumph over Bryan Bankester and Matt Brewer. Michael Jetter and Garrison Pilant made the decisive doubles match necessary after beating the Tulsa tandem of Diego Camacho and Ricardo Soriano, 8-6.

"Memphis is always a very strong team," said Tulsa Head Coach Vince Westbrook. "They are always very good in doubles, which is the strength of their team if you look at them all year long. They played a lot tougher today then the last time we played them here. I think that we are healthier and heading in the right direction."

Playing in the No. 6 singles hole, Cunningham opened the scoring by ousting Pilant 6-0, 6-0. Junior Federico Soriano, who moved up to the No. 1 spot after Brugues was pulled from the line up following his doubles match due to an injury, defeated Sam Withell 6-3, 6-2. The singles victory for F. Soriano was his team-leading 20th of the season.

Connelly brought the match to an end with a 7-6, 6-0 victory over Bankester. Tulsa has made the semifinals of its conference tournament 11 of the last 12 seasons.

Match #2 - 2:00 p.m. - (3) Tulsa def. (6) Memphis, 4-2

Singles
#57 Federico Soriano (TU) def. Sam Withell (UM), 6-3, 6-2
#118 Ricardo Soriano (TU) vs. James Spence (UM), dnf
Will Gray (TU) vs. Matt Brewer (UM), dnf
Diego Camacho (TU) vs. Michael Jetter (UM), dnf
Ross Cunningham (TU) def. Garrison Pilant (UM), 6-0, 6-0
Andy Connelly (TU) def. Bryan Bankester (UM), 7-6, 6-0

Doubles
Arnau Brugues/Aleksander Charpantidis (TU) def. #41 Spence/Withell (UM), 9-8 (2)
Connelly/Cunningham (TU) def. Bankester/Brewer (UM), 8-0
Jetter/Pilant (UM) def. Camacho/R. Soriano (TU), 8-6