Rice University
Purdue
Owls, Raiders Winners at Rice Invitational
3/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 24, 2006
HOUSTON -- In the first day of the Hyatt Regency Downtown/Rice Invitational, the 47th-ranked Rice men beat Purdue 6-1, while 37th-ranked Texas Tech held off South Florida 5-2 on Friday at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium
Rice seniors Robert Searle and Tony Haerle teamed up for an 8-4 win in doubles play over Colin Foster and Kurt Zaske. Despite the victory at one, the Boilermakers came back with wins at two and three to capture the doubles point.
The Owls retaliated by sweeping the singles matches. Searle, ranked 35th nationally, posted a dominating 6-1, 6-0 win against Colin Foster at the top spot to tie the match. At number-four Haerle defeated Kurt Zaske, 6-2, 6-3 to put Rice up by one with four matches still playing.
Freshman Chrisoph Müller boosted the lead to two with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Scott Warner at number-five, and to lock down the team win for Rice, junior Ben Harknett beat Kelubia Mabatah 6-4, 6-0 at the two ladder position.
Wrapping up the day, sophomore Ralph Knupfer knocked out a convincing 6-0 set against Eric Hodgman then won with a 6-4 second set. Finally, sophomore Filip Zivojinovic played a duo of marathon sets against Jarred Leibner, winning 7-5, 7-5.
The Owls have won six of their last seven dual matches, including their last five, and improve to 10-5 with this win.
In the 9 am match, Texas Tech defeated South Florida 5-2. Tech won all three doubles matches to sweep the point. USF fought hard in singles, winning at the five and six positions, but the Red Raiders were able to hold the lead through the series of close matches. Sinisa Markovic clinched the win for Texas Tech at four with a three set win over Juan Barragan, 6-3, 6-7, 7-5.
Hyatt Regency Downtown/Rice Invitational action continues Saturday with Texas Tech facing Purdue at 9 am and Rice taking on South Florida at 12 pm.
Results
No. 37 Texas Tech 5, South Florida 2
Doubles
1. Prpic/Rojmar (TTU) def. Britzen/Barton (USF), 8-6
2. Martinez/Breler (TTU) def. Jaeger/Brozyna (USF), 8-2
3. DiBlasi/Markovic (TTU) def. Barragan/Gattiker (USF), 8-5
Singles
1. No. 112 Adrian Prpic (TTU) def. No. 28 Dirk Britzen (USF), 6-2, 2-0, ret. (inj.)
2. Dimitrio Martinez (TTU) def. Frederico Barton (USF), 6-4, 7-6
3. Christian Rojmar (TTU) def. Marc Jaeger (USF), 6-3, 5-7, 7-5
* 4. Sinisa Markovic (TTU) def. Juan Barragan (USF), 6-3, 6-7, 7-5
5. Dillon Brozyna (USF) def. Michael Breler (TTU), 6-3, 6-2
6. Mark Gattiker (USF) def. Teddy DiBlasi (TTU), 6-7, 6-1, 6-4
No. 47 Rice 6, No. 73 Purdue 1
Doubles
1. No. 50 Searle/Haerle (RU) def. Foster/Zaske (PUR), 8-4
2. Hodgman/Mabatah (PUR) def. Knupfer/Zivojinovic (RU), 9-7
3. Leibner/Warner (PUR) def. Harknett/Müller (RU), 8-6
Singles
1. No. 35 Robert Searle (RU) def. Colin Foster (PUR), 6-1, 6-0
*2. Ben Harknett (RU) def. Kelubia Mabatah (PUR), 6-4, 6-0
3. Ralph Knupfer (RU) def. Eric Hodgman (PUR), 6-0, 6-4
4. Tony Haerle (RU) def. Kurt Zaske (PUR), 6-2, 6-3
5. Filip Zivojinovic (RU) def. Jarred Leibner (PUR), 7-5, 7-5
6. Christoph Müller (RU) def. Scott Warner (PUR), 6-3, 6-2
* clinching match
Players Mentioned
