Rice University Athletics
Rice Ranked 28th By ITA
1/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 10, 2007
HOUSTON -- The Rice men will begin the 2007 dual-match season ranked 28th nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Senior Ben Harknett received a ranking of 50 in singles to lead the Owls.
The Owls finished the 2006 season ranked 29th after posting a 19-8 mark and advancing to the second round of the NCAA championships. Harknett's ranking is the best of his career after receiving a preseason rank of 109 last September. Last month he earned a No. 4 ranking in the ITA South Central Region. Harknett posted a 4-3 mark in the fall, highlighted by an upset of preseason No. 4 Lars Poerschke of Baylor in September.
The Owls return to action Jan. 19-21 when they host the 10th Annual Rice/Downtown Club at the Met Collegiate Indoor Invitational. One of the top individual tournaments in the country, the Rice/Met Indoors features players from nine teams ranked in the newest poll. Baylor is ranked No. 2 and Ohio State is No. 3. Also joining the Owls in the top 30 are No. 20 Texas A&M and No. 23 Clemson.
Twelve members of the ITA's current top 70 in singles will battle in the A Flight as competitors vie to unseat national No. 1 Steven Moneke of OSU. Other top-50 players slated to play are: No. 21 Adam Holstrom, Denver; No. 29 Andrey Kumantsov, TAMU-Corpus Christi; No. 42 Devin Mullings, Ohio State; t-No. 46 Chris Klingemann, Ohio State; t-No. 46 Clement Reix, Clemson; and Rice's Harknett.
In doubles, two ranked pairs a slated to compete with the Islanders' Andrey Kumantsov and Mikhail Pavlov checking at 40th and the Aggies Matt Bain and Conor Pollack tied for 44th.
Action is set to begin on Jan. 19 and 20 at 8:30 am with doubles. The semifinals and finals will begin at approximately 9 am on Jan. 21. The Owls will also open the dual-match season on Jan. 21, taking on Texas-San Antonio following the conclusion of the tournament.
