Rice University
Tulsa
Tulsa Downs Rice in C-USA Title Bout
4/22/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 22, 2007
HOUSTON -- After a thrilling doubles point that lasted an hour and 40 minutes and was decided in a tiebreak, Tulsa snared the momentum to defeat host Rice 4-0 to take the 2007 Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship crown on Sunday afternoon at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.
The Golden Hurricane struck first in doubles taking the win at the No. 2 position. The Owls fought back at No. 3 where Ben Harknett and Dennis Polyakov held off Arnau Brugues and Federico Soriano for a 9-7 victory to even the score.
At the top spot, Rice's 53rd-ranked pair of Ralph Knupfer and Tobias Scheil traded blows with Tulsa's 39th-ranked duo of Diego Camacho and Ross Cunningham. With the score knotted at 6-6 and the Hurricane serving, the combatants battled through 13 deuces before Tulsa took the point to go up 7-6. Behind Knupfer's tough serving, the Owls quickly evened the score at 7-7. The teams traded points again and headed into the tiebreak, where the Tulsa pair rallied from a 4-2 deficit to take the 9-8 (5) decision and hand their team the first point of the day.
The Hurricane quickly extended the lead to 3-0 in singles with wins at the one and six positions. With Rice leading at four and five singles, and split at three, Tulsa's Ricardo Soriano fended off a second set rally from Knupfer to win the team title with his 6-3, 7-5 decision at No. 2.
At No. 4 singles, Scheil was up a set (6-4) and leading 4-1 in a second set tiebreak, while Jason Mok had rallied from a set back and was up 2-6, 6-2, 3-1 against Cunningham at No. 5 when their matches were suspended. Christoph Müller had split his first two sets 4-6, 6-0 and was down 1-2 against Will Gray when Tulsa clinched the team decision.
With the loss, Rice falls to 15-11 on the year while Tulsa improves to 19-7 and receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA championship. The Owls must now wait until May 1 to learn their national post-season. After the NCAA team announcements on May 1, the singles and doubles selections will be released on May 2.
Results
#21 Tulsa 4, #30 Rice 0
Doubles 1. #39 Diego Camacho/Ross Cunningham (TLS) def. #53 Ralph Knupfer/Tobias Scheil (RICE) 9-8 (7-5)
2. Andy Connelly/Lucques Maasdorp (TLS) def. Jason Mok/Christoph Müller (RICE) 8-5
3. Ben Harknett/Dennis Polyakov (RICE) def. Arnau Brugues/Federico Soriano (TLS) 9-7
Singles
1. #5 Arnau Brugues (TLS) def. #36 Ben Harknett (RICE) 6-1, 6-4
2. Ricardo Soriano (TLS) def. #120 Ralph Knupfer (RICE) 6-3, 7-5
3. Christoph Müller (RICE) vs. Will Gray (TLS) 4-6, 6-0, 1-2, unfinished
4. Tobias Scheil (RICE) vs. Federico Soriano (TLS) 6-4, 6-6 (4-1), unfinished
5. Jason Mok (RICE) vs. Ross Cunningham (TLS) 2-6, 6-2, 3-1, unfinished
6. Diego Camacho (TLS) def. Hoony Shin (RICE) 6-0, 6-4
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (1,6,2)
Players Mentioned
