Rice University
Lamar
Women's Tennis Dismisses Lamar
1/27/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Jan. 27, 2008
HOUSTON - The Rice women's tennis team picked up a 5-2 victory over Lamar Sunday afternoon at Jake Hess Stadium on the Rice campus.
The Owls (2-0) struck first with a pair of come-from-behind victories to earn the doubles point.
After Tiffany Lee and Rebecca Lin lost an 8-4 decision to Manijee Ashrafi and Maria Gutierrez at the No. 2 spot, Rice's top pair of Julie Chao and Dominique Karas rallied to win five consecutive games against Andrea Martinez and Mariaryeni Gutierrez turning a 7-4 deficit into a 9-7 triumph.
Emily Braid and Varsha Shiva-Shankar also charged back deficits of 7-5 and 8-7 for the Owls to force a tiebreaker at 8-8 against Salina Aranda and Kaltrina Harbuzi at the No. 3 slot. Braid and Shiva-Shankar cruised to a 7-2 win in the breaker to give the Owls a 1-0 lead.
"We've struggled to win the doubles point in the past," head coach Roger White said. "I was proud of how our doubles teams responded after slow starts. As the matches progressed, we picked up our energy when we needed to in key spots. That was a huge adjustment for us from yesterday. Varsha and Emily haven't played a lot together yet, but it's good to see them win a tough match with the doubles point on the line."
Rice went up 2-0 as Lin disposed of Ashrafi 6-1, 6-1 in the No. 4 hole.
Braid anchored the bottom of the lineup and pushed the Owls advantage to 3-0 emerging with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Aranda, while Chao clinched the match for Rice picking up a 6-2, 6-4 win over Martinez at the No. 1 position.
"We did a good job of using the doubles momentum," White said. "A big key to our singles wins was the ability of sticking to our game plan."
Lamar got on the board as Mariaryeni Gutierrez knocked off Lee 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 and Maria Gutierrez outlasted Shiva-Shankar 4-6, 6-0, 1-0 (11-9) at No. 5.
Karas put the finishing touch on the Cardinals and tallied a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Harbuzi at the No. 3 spot.
Rice concludes the opening weekend of the season Monday against Texas-San Antonio. First serve against the Roadrunners is slated for 3pm. Admission is free to Jake Hess Stadium.
"It's good to have a pair of wins under our belt," White said. "Our goal is to finish up the weekend with one more quality performance."
Players Mentioned
