Rice University
#7 Texas
No. 24 Men's Tennis Falls at No. 7 Texas
5/10/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 10, 2008
AUSTIN - The No. 24 Rice men's tennis team lost a 4-0 decision against No. 7 Texas Saturday afternoon in the NCAA Tournament Second Round at the Penick-Allison Tennis center on the UT campus.
The Owls (17-9) had their dual match season come to a close, while Texas (22-5) moves onto the NCAA Sweet 16 Round in Tulsa.
With Rice behind 3-0, Dennis Polyakov sent the second set of his match against Miguel Reyes Varela to a tiebreaker. The momentum in the breaker swung back-and-forth as Reyes Varela jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Polyakov stormed back using penetrating ground strokes to win six straight points.
Reyes Varela used his kick serve and took control of the net to win seven of the next nine points to clinch the match for the Longhorns.
Bruno Rosa, Christoph Müller and Chong Wang were either tied or ahead during the third set of their matches when played was stopped.
"I'm proud of how we continued to battle, and we were one point away from getting back into the match," head coach Ron Smarr said. "Give credit to Miguel for making three good plays on those set points against Dennis. He (Dennis) hung tough and showed majority against a veteran player."
The Longhorns took the early momentum as No. 2 pair and No. 43 ranked Luis Diaz Barriga and Miguel Reyes Varela raced past Tobias Scheil and Wang, 8-1.
Rice (17-8) attempted to level the doubles tally on the No. 3 line. Filip Zivojinovic and Rosa trimmed a 7-3 deficit to 7-5 against Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala. The Longhorn pair regrouped on Zavala's serve to win 8-5 and secure the doubles point.
In the No. 1 match, No. 25 ranked Ralph Knupfer and Müller held a break point at 5-5 against No. 9 ranked Ed Corrie and Kellen Damico when play was halted.
Corrie and Milan Mihailovic knocked off Knupfer and Zivojinovic in straight sets at the No. 3 and No. 5 positions to push the Texas lead to 3-0.
"We had a very good season with six of our eight losses coming against teams in the Top 12 of the nation," Smarr said. "It gives us something to build on with a solid nucleus and talented newcomers coming in for next season."
The Owls have Rosa along with top doubles pair Knupfer and Müller competing next week in the individual NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournaments.
Players Mentioned
