ORLANDO, Fla. – Temple continued its impressive run in the American Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Championship as the No. 7-seeded Owls knocked off last year’s conference champion with a win against No. 2-seeded Tulane to highlight an eventful quarterfinal round Friday at the USTA National Campus.
 
Temple joins Wichita State as first-time semifinalists in the tournament as the Shockers were 4-2 winners against Tulsa.
 
The tournament’s top two seeds also advanced as No. 1 UCF beat SMU 4-0 and No. 2 USF held off Memphis for a 4-3 decision.
 
Semifinal-round play begins Friday at the USTA National Campus as the top six seeds play for the first time.
 
Complete coverage of The American Tennis Championships, including live scoring of each match, can be found on the conference’s Championship Central site. Live coverage of Sunday’s men’s final will be available on the American Digital Network.
 

 
Temple 4, Tulane 3
Records: Temple (15-6), Tulane (14-12)
Paolo Cucalon won a third-set tiebreaker at No. 3 singles to send Temple to the semifinal round of the American Championship for the first time as the No. 7-seeded Owls stunned No. 2-seeded Tulane 4-3 Friday morning.
 
Cucalon’s win came four hours and two minutes after the 8 a.m. ET start time, and it ended a contest that saw both the singles and doubles rounds decided by tiebreakers. Cucalon had trailed Tulane’s Luis Erlenbusch 5-2 in the third set, but battled back to force a tiebreaker at 6-6. Erlenbuch built an early 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker, but again, Cucalon had an answer as he prevailed 8-6.
 
Cucalon paired with Uladzimir Dorash for a win at No. 3 doubles that proved pivotal to the outcome as the duo defeated Erlenbusch and Dane Esses 7-6 (7-4) to clam the first team point.
 
Tulane took the first two singles matches as Esses and Ewan Moore won in straight sets. But Temple’s Juan Araoz followed with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 6 to make it 2-2. Tulane’s Tyler Schick put the Green Wave one point shy of a clinching point with a 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 4, but Temple’s Mark Wallner pulled away for a 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 2, tying the match and turning all eyes to the No. 3 court.
 
Temple advances in the bracket to face No. 2-seeded Tulane Friday.
 
 
USF 4, Memphis 3
Records: USF (15-7), Memphis (11-13)
Pierre Luquet won a three-set battle at No. 3 singles to break a 3-3 tie with Memphis and send USF to the semifinal round of the American Championship for the sixth consecutive year Friday morning.
 
Luquet trailed by a set in his match with the Tigers’ Jeremy Taylor, but came back to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-0, allowing the Bulls to stop the Tigers’ comeback from what had been a 3-0 deficit.
 
USF, seeded No. 3 in the championship, built the lead by making short work of the doubles round and getting straight-set singles wins less than a minute apart from Alberto Barroso-Campos and Chase Ferguson.
 
Memphis players had won their first sets on the four remaining courts, however, allowing the Tigers to close the gap. Patrick Sydow put Memphis on the board with his win at No. 6, while the Tigers tied it when Matt Story and Oscar Cutting delivered three-set victories at No. 4 and No. 5.
 
Luquet had little drama in his third set, however, as he closed the match by taking six straight games.
 
USF advances in the bracket to face Temple in Friday’s semifinals. The Bulls have advanced to the final in all five of their previous American Athletic Conference Championship appearances.
 
 
Wichita State 4, Tulsa 3
Records: Wichita State (16-9), Tulsa (14-12)
Haru Inoue scored a straight-set win against the nation’s No. 63-ranked player to lead Wichita State past Tulsa 4-2 in a quarterfinal match Friday afternoon.
 
The match began on the outdoor courts at the USTA National Campus, but was moved indoors after heavy rains moved in. The Shockers, who advanced to the semifinals for the first time as American Athletic Conference members, were not slowed by the move as the Shockers picked up wins at No. 1, No. 5 and No. 6 singles in addition to the doubles point.
 
Inoue led the way with a 7-6 (6), 6-2 win at No. 1 against Tulsa’s Majed Kilani. Inoue also contributed to the clinching point in doubles as he paired with Stefan Latinovic for a 7-5 win at No. 3.
 
The No. 1 doubles match also went Wichita State’s way as the Shockers won a battle of ranked tandems. No. 25 Murkel Dellien/Marius Frosa was a 6-3 winner against Tulsa’s No. 78-ranked tandem of Jarod Hing/Boriss Kamdem.
 
Wichita State will face top-seeded UCF Saturday in the semifinals.
 
 
UCF 4, SMU 0
Records: UCF (14-9), SMU (12-17)
Top-seeded UCF and No. 9-seeded SMU battled through two weather-related stoppages and a move to indoor courts before the Knights came away with a 4-0 win in the quarterfinal round of the American Championship Friday afternoon.
 
The Knights advance to the semifinal round of the tournament for the third consecutive season, where they will face No. 5-seeded Wichita State Saturday.
 
UCF, ranked No. 28 in the most recent Oracle/ITA team rankings, picked up wins at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles on the outdoor courts at the USTA National Campus to build an early 1-0 lead. But heavy rains moved the singles portion of the match to the facility’s indoor courts. The Knights got two quick singles wins as Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi was a 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 5 and Mikhail Sokolovskiy followed shortly after with a 6-1, 6-0 decision at No. 6.
 
SMU players forced third sets at the No. 1 and No. 4 positions, but with UCF needing one point to clinch the match, Alan Rubio earned a 7-5, 6-3 victory at the No. 2 spot to end it.
 
 
 
AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
presented by AIR FORCE RESERVE
April 18-21 | Orlando, Florida
 

First Round | Thursday, April 18
Match 1: No. 7 Temple 4, No. 10 UConn 0
Match 2: No. 9 SMU 4, No. 8 ECU 0
Quarterfinals | Friday, April 19
Match 3: No. 7 Temple 4, No. 2 Tulane 3
Match 4: No. 3 USF 4, No. 6 Memphis 0
Match 5: No. 5 Wichita State 4, No. 4 Tulsa 2
Match 6: No. 1 UCF 4, No. 9 SMU 0
Semifinals | Saturday, April 20
Match 7: No. 7 Temple (15-6) vs. No. 3 USF (15-7)	1 p.m.
Match 8: No. 5 Wichita State (16-9) vs. No. 1 UCF (14-9)	1 p.m.
Final | Sunday, April 21 | American Digital Network
Match 9: Semifinal winners	TBD

 
 
all times Eastern