Rice University
Tulsa
Owls Finish Second At C-USA Championships
4/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 23, 2006
TULSA, Okla. -- No. 3 seed Tulsa claimed the 2006 Conference USA men's tennis championship with a 4-1 upset victory over top-seed Rice Sunday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa. The 42nd-ranked Golden Hurricane fell behind 1-0 after the doubles point was secured by the 28th-ranked Owls, but came back in the singles matches, picking up four straight-set victories to capture the title and earn the league's automatic bid to 2006 NCAA Tournament.
The Golden Hurricane picked up singles wins in the No. 1, No. 2, No. 4 and No. 5 positions to capture its four points. The top-ranked player in the tournament, Tulsa's Arnau Brugues recorded his first win of the championship with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over 29th-ranked Robert Searle in the No. 1 singles match. Brugues, ranked 12th in the country, did not finish his previous match in the semifinals after sitting out the quarterfinals with an injury.
The other two singles wins for Tulsa came from 57th-ranked Federico Soriano, who defeated 122nd-ranked Ben Harknett, 6-1, 6-4, and sophomore Will Gray, who defeated Filip Zivojinovic, 6-0, 7-5.
The 20th-ranked Rice doubles tandem of Searle and Tony Haerle defeated Brugues and Aleksander Charpantidis, 8-4, to earn the doubles point for the Owls. The No. 1 doubles match became important after the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches were split between the two teams. The Tulsa duo Andy Connelly and Ross Cunningham won the No. 2 match, 8-5, while Rice took the No. 3 match as Jason Mok and Rodrigo Gabriel posted an 8-3 victory.
(3) Tulsa def. (1) Rice, 4-1
Singles
#12 Arnau Brugues (Tulsa) def. #29 Robert Searle (Rice), 6-3, 6-1
#57 Federico Soriano (Tulsa) def. #122 Ben Harknett (Rice), 6-1, 6-4
Tony Haerle (Rice) vs. #118 Ricardo Soriano (Tulsa), dnf
Will Gray (Tulsa) def. Filip Zivojinovic (Rice), 6-0, 7-5
Diego Camacho (Tulsa) def. Christoph Muller (Rice), 7-6, 6-0
Jason Mok (Rice) vs. Ross Cunningham (Tulsa), dnf
Doubles
#20 Haerle/Searle (Rice) def. Brugues/Aleksander Charpantidis (Tulsa), 8-4
Andy Connelly/Cunningham (Tulsa) def. Harknett/Muller (Rice), 8-5
Rodrigo Gabriel/Mok (Rice) def. F. Soriano/R. Soriano (Tulsa), 8-3
Players Mentioned
