Rice University
Sam Houston State
Women's Tennis Mauls Sam Houston State
2/22/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 22, 2008
Sam Houston State at Rice (Box Score - PDF) 
HOUSTON - The Rice women's tennis team continued its strong play with a 6-1 triumph over Sam Houston State Friday afternoon at Jake Hess Stadium on the Rice campus.
The Owls (8-4) have won four of its last five matches and improve to 6-1 at home this season.
"I'm proud of the girls for competing hard," head coach Roger White said. "It's tough to sometimes to come out and dominate a match that you're expected to win."
The pairs of Tiffany Lee and Rebecca Lin along with Emily Braid and Varsha Shiva-Shankar made quick work of the doubles point. Lee and Lin notched an 8-1 win at No. 2 over Stasa Vujosevic and Roxana Martinez, while Braid and Shiva-Shankar came off the court moments later in the No. 3 hole with an 8-2 victory against Eleonora Kuruc and Patricia Manzur.
Sam Houston State's () top pair of Irina Sotnikova and Peta Taylor edged Julie Chao and Dominique Karas 8-5.
In singles action, Lin and Shiva-Shankar dropped only three games apiece in dominating victories to make it 3-0.
Lin snapped a two-match skid turning in a 6-2, 6-1 win over Vujosevic at No. 4 spot, while Shiva-Shankar won her fifth match in her last six outings at the bottom of the lineup with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Martinez.
"Rebecca made a point when she got out there to be aggressive and take charge of the match from the first point," White said. "Her and Varsha did a fantastic job of never going their opponents an opportunity to get going."
Karas clinched the win for the Owls and claimed a 6-3, 6-2 win over Taylor at the No. 3 position. Lee also added 6-1, 7-6 (4) victory against Kuruc in the No. 2 slot.
After splitting the first two sets, Braid gutted out a tight super tiebreaker to emerge with a 10-8 win over Manzur. Chao took the opening set 6-2 against Sotnikova before regrouping for a pair of 6-3 win for the final margin of 6-1.
Rice returns to the courts Saturday to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. First serve has been moved up to 1:30pm at Jake Hess Stadium.
"This is another big match for our regional ranking," White said. "We'll also get a chance to hone our skills in the postseason format with the match being suspended when the first team gets to four points."
Players Mentioned
