Rice University
Texas Tech
Rice Stumbles at Texas Tech
2/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 17, 2007
LUBBOCK, Texas -- In a tough battle that came down to the wire, No. 43 Texas Tech upset the 30th-ranked Rice men 4-3 on Saturday afternoon in Lubbock.
The Owls won two of three doubles matches to secure the first point of the day. Ralph Knupfer and Tobias Scheil downed the Red Raiders' Bojan Szumanski and Christian Rojmar 8-4 at No. 1. After Texas Tech took the No. 3 doubles match, Jason Mok and Christoph Müller scored an 8-6 win at No. 2 against Michael Breler and Sinisa Markovic to clinch the point.
The Red Raiders knotted the team score at 1-1 before Ben Harknett and Knupfer posted singles wins to put the Owls up 3-1. Harknett, ranked 50th in singles, upset No. 12 Szumanski 6-3, 7-6 (5) at the top spot, while the unranked Knupfer upset No. 92 Markovic 6-4, 7-6 (4) at No. 3.
The dual went down to the wire as the final three matches all went three sets. in each match, the Red Raiders took the first frame, then the Owls rallied in the second. Texas Tech out-lasted Rice in all three matches to take the team decision.
The Owls next travel to Baton Rouge, La., to face No. 20 Louisiana State on Tuesday afternoon.
Results
No. 43 Texas Tech 4, No. 30 Rice 3
Doubles
1) Knupfer/Scheil (RU) def. Szumanski/Rojmar (TTU), 8-4
2) Mok/Müller (RU) def. Breler/Markovic (TTU), 8-6
3) Martinez/DiBlasi (TTU) def. Harknett/Zivojinovic (RU), 8-4
Singles
1) #50 Ben Harknett (RU) def. #12 Bojan Szumanski (TTU), 6-3, 7-6 (5)
2) Dimitrio Martinez (TTU) def. Filip Paroci (RU), 6-4, 6-2
3) Ralph Knupfer (RU) def. #92 Sinisa Markovic (TTU), 6-4, 7-6 (4)
4) Christian Rojmar (TTU) def. Christoph Müller (RU), 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-4
5) Michael Breler (TTU) def. Jason Mok (RU), 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5
6) Filip Zivojinovic (RU) def. Milos Kustadija (TTU), 7-5, 2-6, 6-3
Order of Finish: D1, D3, D2, S2, S1, S3, S4, S6, S5
Players Mentioned
