July 16, 2003

The University of Memphis men's tennis team earned its second straight Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Team award it was announced by the ITA, Wednesday. Three Tiger tennis players also received individual ITA Scholar-Athlete awards for having individual GPAs of 3.5 or higher in 2002-03. To receive the team award, the team had to have a GPA of 3.2 or higher.

In what was a banner year for the Tigers, Memphis received both national and conference awards for sportsmanship, stayed in the national rankings every week for the second straight year, watched one senior graduate in three years and posted a 16-7 record and a fifth-place finish in the conference before today's honors from the ITA.

"I am pleased we have been able to achieve our three major goals in our program," Head Coach Phil Chamberlain said. "Our goals are 1) our on-court attitude and commitment, which we achieved with the ITA Team Sportsmanship and with Joe (Schmulian)'s Conference USA Sportsmanship honor; 2) competitiveness in the rankings and 3) our GPAs and the long-term, we want our student-athletes to get their degrees. We set those goals three or four years ago, and that is reflected by having three student-athletes receive this award today."

This marks the first time Memphis has had three recipients of the ITA All-Academic Award. Junior Lee Taylor Walker (Jackson, Tenn./Univ. School of Jackson) and sophomores Alex Bucewicz (Melbourne, Australia/Salesian) and Andrew Olswing (Memphis, Tenn./Ridgeway HS) were the 2003 honorees for the award after graduated senior Michael LaHaie was the lone Tiger to receive the award last year.

Walker was part of the team's No. 1 doubles team that ranked as high as No. 12 in the country after a highly-successful fall season that saw the Tigers advance to the finals of the Omni Hotels Region III Championships at Kentucky. Walker and doubles partner Ben Stapp won three doubles titles in 2002-03, including the Middle Tennessee Tournament, the Adult Southern Open and the Milwaukee Tennis Classic. Walker was 9-15 at No. 1 singles, facing a number of opponents who were ranked nationally in singles, including Daniel Klemetz from Middle Tennessee, a top 10 singles player. In two years at Memphis after transferring from Clemson, Walker is 28-26 in singles and 43-17 in singles.

Bucewicz led the Tigers in the spring with a 21-3 mark in singles, and is 41-11 in singles during his two-year Tiger career. Bucewicz also teamed with all-conference third team performer Joe Schmulian at No. 2 doubles, where the duo posted a 14-8 record after Schmulian missed the fall season due to a foot injury. In singles, Bucewicz won the consolation singles title at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic in January.

Olswing transferred to Memphis from Bradley University. In the one spring dual he played, Olswing locked up the Tigers' final home victory with a 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 6 singles. Olswing was 1-1 in two doubles matches during the fall before Schmulian's injury moved Olswing's doubles partner up a notch and caused Olswing to miss the remainder of the doubles portion of the schedule. He did go 1-1 in singles in his first semester as a Tiger.

Memphis will host two premier collegiate men's tennis events in 2003-2004. The Tigers will host the ITA Southeast Regional, Oct. 16-19, at The Racquet Club of Memphis. The Southeast Region of the ITA includes all NCAA Division I schools in Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Seven of the top 25 teams in the year-end national rankings compete in the Southeast Regional.

Memphis will then be the final destination for the Conference USA Men's Tennis Championships in the spring. All 12 C-USA teams will descend on Memphis to determine who will take home the league crown and at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.

The Tigers finished 2003 the 70th-ranked team in the country. Five of C-USA's members were nationally ranked at the end of 2003. South Florida was the only other C-USA men's tennis program to receive the ITA Team honor.