Rice University
# 26 Texas
Women's Tennis Falls at No. 26 Texas
2/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 17, 2008
Rice at No. 26 Texas (Box Score - PDF) 
AUSTIN - The Rice women's tennis team came away with the doubles point before dropping a 5-2 decision against No. 26 Texas Sunday afternoon at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
Texas (3-1) used an 8-3 win from Vanja Corovic and Marija Milic over Julio Chao and Dominique Karas at the No. 1 doubles position.
Emily Braid and Varsha Shiva-Shankar evened the doubles tally for the Owls (6-4) with a hard-fought 8-6 victory over Sarah Lancaster and Caroline Larsson.
In the No. 2 hole with the doubles point hanging in the balance, Tiffany Lee and Rebecca Lin were in a tight battle with Maggie Mello and Courtney Zauft. The match went to tiebreaker and the Owls emerged with a 7-5 win for the early 1-0 lead.
"We got the doubles point and are showing that we can win at any position on any given day," head coach Roger White said. "The girls played with tremendous heart, and we showed that we're one step closer today to beating a Top 25 opponent."
The Longhorns fired back with five singles victories. Mello drew the match even at 1-1 with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 5 over Braid.
Karas swung the Owls back ahead 2-1 and notched a 6-4, 6-2 win over Zauft at the No. 3 spot.
Larsson and Stephanie Davidson tallied straight set wins for the Longhorns to clinch the match. Larsson defeated Lin 6-3, 6-1 in the No. 4 slot, while Davidson topped Lee at No. 2 by the score of 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Chao and Shiva-Shankar took the opening sets in their match at the top and bottom of the lineup, respectfully.
Chao went to a second set tiebreaker with Corovic and held a match point before Corovic scored three consecutive points to even the score. Corovic used the momentum and won 6-2 in the final set. Shiva-Shankar fell to Lancaster in a hard-fought 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 decision for the final margin of 5-2.
Rice plays host to a trio of matches this week starting Monday against Northwestern State. First serve against the Demons is slated for 2pm. Admission is free to Jake Hess Stadium.
Players Mentioned
