Rice University
Texas
Rice Eliminated From NCAAs By Texas
5/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 14, 2006
AUSTIN -- After multiple weather delays, Rice was eliminated from the 2006 NCAA Men's Tennis Championships by third-ranked Texas in a 4-0 decision in second-round action on Sunday in Austin.
After the Longhorns won the doubles point, there was a 47 minute delay due to lightening in the area. Play resumed with singles but was interrupted again by lightening and then the wet weather moved through. Despite multiple attempts to restart, the 1 pm match did not resume play until 6:15 pm, resulting in almost four hours of delays.
Once the skies cleared, the teams returned to action and Texas rang up wins at two, four and six singles to clinch the victory. In suspended matches, the Owls' Christoph Müller was just entering his second set after a tough 7-6 setback in the opener. Playing at the top spot for just the fifth time this year, Ben Harknett lost the first set to ninth-ranked Travis Helgeson 6-4, but was up 3-1 in the second when the match was ended.
"We're obviously disappointed with the loss," said head coach Ron Smarr. " I thought we played pretty well in doubles. The weather delays should have been a blessing, but it just didn't work out that way. That had a lot to do with Texas, but we just didn't finish."
Playing without senior Robert Searle, who did not play this weekend due to a foot injury, the Owls were forced to shuffle their lineup resulting in completely different match-ups from Rice's 5-2 win against Texas last month in Houston.
The loss ends Rice's regular season with a 19-8 record. Searle, ranked 28th nationally, qualified for the NCAA singles championship and the doubles championship with classmate Tony Haerle. The Owl pair rank 18th nationally. Searle's status for the tournament has yet to be determined. The pairings for the individual championships will be announced on May 23 with action getting underway on May 24 in Palo Alto, Calif.
Results
No. 3 Texas 4, No. 29 Rice 0
Doubles
1. No. 29 Beale/Reyes Varela (UT) vs. Knupfer/Zivojinovic (RU), 6-3, DNF
2. Hubert Chodkiewiciz/Gubser (UT) def. Harknett/Müller (RU), 8-6
3. Helgeson/Diaz Barriga (UT) def. Mok/Haerle (RU), 8-5
Singles
1. No. 9 Travis Helgeson (UT) vs. Ben Harknett (RU), 6-4, 1-3, DNF
2. No. 35 Roger Gubser (UT) def. No. 79 Ralph Knupfer (RU), 6-2, 6-0
3. No. 47 Callum Beale (ULL) vs. Tony Haerle (RU), 6-2, 4-2, DNF
4. Milan Mihailovic (UT) def. Filip Zivojinovic (RU), 6-1, 6-3
5. Miguel Reyes Varela (UT) vs. Christoph Müller (RU), 7-6, 0-0 DNF
*6. Michael Venus (UT) def. Jason Mok (RU), 6-4, 6-1
Order of finish: D3, D2, S2, S4, S6*
Players Mentioned
