Sept. 25, 2007

IRVING, Texas - Amrit Narasimhan and Charlie Ramsay of Memphis, who had never been paired together before for the Tigers, made U of M history over the weekend by winning five-straight matches to claim the Division I doubles title at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships. Rice, UAB and UCF were also in action last weekend and turned in solid performances. Next up for 19 of the top C-USA men's players is the ITA All-American Championship being held in Tulsa, Okla. at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Tulsa. The prestigious event begins Sept. 29.

MEMPHIS
Heading into the doubles tournament at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships, senior Amrit Narasimhan and sophomore Charlie Ramsay had never played doubles together. The duo quickly made some history in their first-ever pairing by winning five straight matches to claim the Division I doubles title at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships (SIC), Monday.

The SIC tournament is the top outdoor tennis tournament in the southeastern United States, featuring teams from the SEC and ACC, as well as nationally-ranked singles and doubles competitors from various Southeastern-based universities.

On Monday, the Tiger duo defeated Middle Tennessee's Chris Nowak and John Peers, 8-6, in the second semifinal, then defeated Tennessee's Davey Sandgren and J.P. Smith, 8-6, in the finals to capture the program's first-ever title at the prestigious Intercollegiate Championships.

"We played some great teams from SEC and ACC schools and it just shows it wasn't a fluke, we played solid the whole week," Ramsay said. "Winning the Intercollegiates is a big one for me."

Memphis has never won any title at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships, and in its previous best, had a quarterfinalist in singles at the ITA Southeast Championships.

"This is a huge step in what we plan to achieve for our program," Narasimhan said. "It's a small step in the big picture for us guys. This is a huge motivation for us and gives us great momentum for the program and where we see it going."

Ramsay brought a cheering section to the tournament, with his parents traveling down from Chattanooga, Tenn., while his grandparents, who live in the Athens area, were also able to see the McCallie High School product win his first-ever tournament when paired with Narasimhan.

Next up for Narasimhan will be the ITA All-American Championships, which begin Monday in Tulsa. Narasimhan, the No. 98 ranked singles player in the country, is in the Qualifying Draw of the singles tournament.

Ramsay and the rest of the team will have a break in competition in order to begin preparation for the North Florida tournament, Oct. 12-14th.

RICE
After winning three matches and getting to the finals of the A Draw doubles, No. 4 seed Ralph Knupfer and Christoph Müller fell 8-3 to No. 2 seed Jonas Berg and Erling Tveit of Ole Miss Sunday at the HEB Baylor Invitational at the Baylor Tennis Complex.

After rough singles play Friday, Rice continued to rely on its strong doubles play Saturday at Baylor.

No. 4 seed Ralph Knupfer and Christoph Müller picked up two hard-fought victories over Chris Chirico and Conor Pollack from Texas A&M (8-6) and Bram Ten Berge and Matthias Wellerman of Ole Miss (8-5) to earn a spot in the A Draw Finals Sunday at 9:30am. The German duo squares off against No. 2 seed Jonas Berg and Erling Tveit of Ole Miss.

The Owls bid to put Vishnu Rajam and Filip Zivojinovic in the B Draw finals came up short. After notching an 8-4 win over Francisco Segura and Diego Trojano of Laredo, Rajam and Zivojinovic lost an 8-5 decision to Alejandro De Mucha and Stefan McKinney of New Mexico State.

The Owls return to action at the ITA All-American Championship presented by Polo Ralph Lauren. Qualifying begins on Oct. 1 at the University of Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

UAB
UAB capped a successful first weekend of fall action here Sunday as the Blazers claimed a singles title and also a doubles crown in the three-day UTC Baras Classic.

Sophomore Thomas Petrich captured the "B" division singles championship as he won over UAB teammate Tyrone Ewels, 5-2, retired (injured). Ewels, who suffered cramps after his two three-set matches on Saturday, experienced more of the same Sunday morning and was not able to complete the match.

In the "A" doubles flight, the Blazers' senior duo of Johannes Spangenberg and Adrian Tollstam were 8-6 winners over the Lipscomb team of Daniel Hangstefer and Steffen Hawkins.

UAB had a shot at picking up a second singles title in the tournament as Tollstam also played for the "C" division crown. After a strong start against North Alabama's Chris Sodemann, Tollstam fell in three sets, 2-6, 6-0, 6-4.

UCF
On Sunday, UCF finished the three-day Rollins College C.L. Varner Memorial Invitational with a singles and doubles championship. All eight Knights who competed in the singles portion of the tournament advanced to at least the third round of play.

In Flight A, sophomore Johan Beigart defeated three different opponents to reach the title match against Brock Newton of Palm Beach Atlantic. However, the championship match was canceled due to rain.

Also competing in flight A was senior Sinan Sudas, junior Brock Sakey and freshman Bob VanDeLaar. Sakey fell 6-4, 6-5 to Brian Compton of Rollins College, which kept Sakey away from playing teammate Johan Beigart in the semifinals.

Freshman Claudio Romano was the top seed in flight B. Romano knocked off three opponents and earned his fourth victory (6-4, 6-0) in the finals against Pablo Seijo of Rollins to win the B bracket.

Junior Jimmy Roesch, freshman Blaze Schwartz and junior Danny Colón also competed in the B bracket. Roesch and Schwartz, along with Romano made up three of the four semifinalists in flight B.

In doubles competition, Beigart and Sakey teamed together for a 9-7 victory against Rollins' Compton and Jonathan Gomez in the championship in bracket A. Beigart and Sakey were given the top seed in flight A.

UCF will have six days before the start of the ITA All-American Tournament in Tulsa, Okla. at the University of Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center.