Rice University Athletics
Women's Tennis Super Six: No. 6 Jacksonville
8/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Aug. 6, 2008
HOUSTON - The 2007-08 Rice women's tennis season was full of many memories as the Owls racked up a 17-5 record that included an 11-match winning streak. Before the fall season gets underway in September officially turning the calendar to the 2008-09 season, RiceOwls.com will re-live last season's top six moments. Today, Rice's 5-2 victory at No. 75 Jacksonville on February 3rd is featured.
After a 7-0 loss at No. 21 Florida State, the Owls took the court two days later at No. 75 Jacksonville.
"It's an interesting situation when you play a team like Jacksonville in their home facility," former head coach Roger White said. "The girls played tough a couple of days earlier at Florida State, who ended up being ranked in the Top 10 during the season. We knew that we had a strong team, but I thought the Jacksonville match was a big opportunity for us to prove that."
Rice's No. 1 doubles team of Julie Chao and Dominique Karas set the tone early coming away with a dominant 8-0 sweep of Tatiana Soldatova and Iva Jaresova. Tiffany Lee and Rebecca Lin secured the doubles point for the Owls with an 8-3 win over Fernanda Carrero and Lena Willi in the No. 2 spot.
Rice carried that momentum into singles action as Chao and Lin rolled to impressive 6-1, 6-1 wins to put the Owls in the driver's seat ahead 3-0.
With the score 3-1, Emily Braid provided the clinching point. The North Carolina native fired back dropping only three games over the final two sets to claim a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 comeback win at the No. 5 position.
Lee notched a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 victory at No. 3 to put the finishing touches on a 5-2 win.
"It was really exciting to see things come together for the first time (in 2008) during the Jacksonville match," White said. "With Varsha (Shiva-Shankar) nicked up (at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles), we were essentially playing with two doubles teams and five singles players. Julie, Tiffany, Rebecca and Emily took control of their matches and got the job done."
Rice jumped into the ITA rankings at No. 74 after the Jacksonville win. The No. 5 moment will be released on August 13th.
Players Mentioned
