WICHITA – The Wichita State men's tennis team earned the No. 7 seed in this weekend's American Athletic Conference Tennis Championship at Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

The Shockers (12-13) are set to face No. 2 seed Memphis (14-6) Friday at noon CT in the opening round. Seeding for the tournament is determined by the ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings, which ranks the Tigers No. 37 in the nation.

"We know it's going to be tough," head coach Danny Bryan said. "We played pretty well against them at SMU and we know they're very good. We just have to believe that if we play our best, then we have a shot to do really well here."

The Memphis duo of David Stevenson and Jeremy Taylor holds the highest doubles ranking in the AAC, coming in at No. 21 in the ITA national rankings.

"I was very impressed with Memphis's doubles when we played them last time, and I do feel like that's going to be a really big point for us," Bryan said. "Even though we've had a tough last few weeks, if everyone plays the way they're capable of and does their job, then we're going to be in these matches."

The winner will take on either No. 3 seed Tulsa (No. 49) or No. 6 seed Tulane (No. 69) in the semifinals on Saturday at noon CT. No. 27 SMU earned the top seed in the tournament and No. 40 South Florida rounds out the top four. The championship match is scheduled for Sunday at noon CT and will air on ESPN+.

Fans can follow along with the matches on Twitter @GoShockersMTEN and @American_Tenn. Live scoring and live video, along with brackets, ticket info and more can be found at TheAmerican.org/mtennis.
 

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2022 AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
April 22-24 | Michael D. Case Tennis Center | Tulsa, Oklahoma
 
Quarterfinals | Friday, April 22
No. 8 Temple (11-9) vs. No. 1 SMU (19-6) | 10 a.m. ET/9 a.m. CT
No. 5 UCF (8-14) vs. No. 4 South Florida (13-9) | 10 a.m. ET/9 a.m. CT
No. 6 Tulane (7-14) vs. No. 3 Tulsa (14-10) | 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT
No. 7 Wichita State (11-13) vs. No. 2 Memphis (13-7) | 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT
 
Semifinals | Saturday, April 23
 
Temple/SMU winner vs. UCF/South Florida winner | 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT
Tulane/Tulsa winner vs. Wichita State/Memphis winner | 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT
 
Final | Sunday, April 24 | ESPN+
 
Semifinal winners | 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT
 

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The Shockers fell to the Tigers, 2-4, when they met in Dallas, Texas on April 1, but Nicolas Acevedo and Kristof Minarik picked up straight-set victories at No. 1 and No. 2 singles. The pair leads the team with singles records of 12-6 and 13-6, respectively, playing the majority of their matches at the top two courts. Luka Mrsic and Alex Richards also recorded 11 singles wins during the regular season.

Minarik and Richards hold the best doubles record for the Shockers, going 10-5 as a duo, but have split up over courts two and three for the past three matches, while Mrsic and Orel Ovil have taken over the No. 1 spot. Mrsic and Ovil defeated the Tigers' No. 2 doubles team, 6-2, in their previous meeting.

Memphis has won three of the five matches it's played since beating the Shockers, securing the doubles point in each of their wins.

The Shockers have won a total of 25 conference team championships, all in the Missouri Valley Conference, along with three regular season titles. Since joining the AAC, Wichita State has made it to the semifinals in two of the three tournaments, notably defeating Memphis, 4-3, to advance in 2021.