Tigers top SMU, reach championship match
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Ian Chadwell’s scream, punctuated by a pumped fist, came moments after his opponent, SMU’s Arkidjas Slobodkins, sent a final shot sailing beyond the baseline. Chadwell’s exultation — ‘Let’s Go Tigers’ — could be heard throughout the six-court complex and new viewing facility, letting his teammates know that the University of Memphis tennis program’s streak was intact.
Chadwell’s 6-2, 6- 4 victory at No. 5 singles clinched a 4-0 victory over SMU in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Championships on Saturday at The Racquet Club.
The win sent the 21stranked Tigers, the tourna- ment’s top seed, into Sunday’s noon championship match against No. 2 seed South Florida and gave the U of M (14-4) its third straight appearance in a league final, a programbest.
The U of M will attempt to repeat as a conference champion after winning last year’s Conference USA title, also in Memphis.
“It was a good team win,” said Tiger coach Paul Goebel. “All year long we’ve seemed to have gotten contributions from different guys.”
The Tigers will play a USF team ranked 26th nationally and one the U of M narrowly defeated last weekend, also at The Racquet Club, during the final regular-season match.
In Saturday’s semifinals, the Tigers won the doubles point to gain an early, and important, edge.
With each team having won a doubles match, the fight for the point came down to the No. 2 team of Connor Glennon and Cedric De Zutter of Memphis against Alex Sanders and Nate Lammons. Ahead 7- 6 but needing a break of serve to avoid a tiebreaker, Glennon and De Zutter came through in dramatic fashion.
Glennon ran down a shot that pulled him far off the court and De Zutter covered for Glennon’s momentary absence by keeping two shots in play. De Zutter then hustled to return a drop volley and followed by putting away a volley for the break and an 8- 6 victory. The Memphis duo had played a similarly spectacular point before to set up the break.
“Those might have been two of the best doubles points we’ve played all year,” Goebel said. “It was the best two points they’ve played at No. 2 doubles.
“SMU really did nothing wrong on those points. They were long rallies, and there was scrambling all around the court. It was really exciting. Those points could have gone either way.”
Glennon also won at No. 1 singles over Arturs Kazijevs, who retired midway through the second set with a physical ailment. But Glennon, a junior from England, agreed the doubles point was the key.
“The magnitude of that doubles point was (enormous),” Glennon said. “The other two matches were fairly easy and everyone started watching our match as the tension built.”