Rice University
SMU
Mustangs Hand Owls 5-2 Senior Day Setback
4/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 10, 2009
The 22nd-ranked SMU Mustangs fought off a determined effort by the Rice Owls on Senior Day to take a 5-2 decision at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium on Friday.
The match opened with each team taking one set of doubles and the Owls seemed primed to grab the doubles point after racing out to a 7-3 lead in the No. 3 match. But SMU rallied to take the match 9-7 and grab a 1-0 lead in the contest.
"We came out and battled from the start," Rice head women's coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. "SMU is ranked 22nd for a reason, and you saw how they stepped up at key times. But we held our own against one of the best teams in the country and that should give us some confidence heading into the conference tournament, We might even get another look at SMU down the road," she added.
SMU clinched the match by taking straight-set wins at No. 1, No. 5 and No. 6 singles to clinch the match, but the Owls fought back to win third-set tie-breakers by Rebekka Hänle at No. 2 and Jessica Jackson at No. 4. Ana Guzman, who came back from a 5-2 deficit to win the first set in a tie-breaker at No. 3, closed out the match dropping a third-set, tie-breaker 12-10 to give the Mustangs their final margin of victory.
Prior to the match, the Owls honored graduating senior Emily Braid, who won over 70 matches during her career in both singles and doubles for the Owls.
The Rice women will wrap up their 2009 regular season with a 9 a.m. match on Saturday vs. Northwestern State. They will then wait until Monday to learn their seeding for the Conference USA tournament, which opens play at the Jack Hess Tennis Center on Thursday.
Tennis Match Results
SMU vs Rice
4/10/2009 at Houston, Texas
(Jake Hess Tennis Stadium)
#22 SMU 5, Rice 2
Singles competition
1. #58 Marta Lesniak (SMU) def. Julie Chao (RICE) 6-3, 6-2
2. Rebekka Hänle (RICE) def. Natalia Bubien (SMU) 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5)
3. #114 Aleks Malyarschikova (SMU) def. Ana Guzman (RICE) 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 1-0 (12-10)
4. Jessica Jackson (RICE) def. Pavi Francis (SMU) 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (10-5)
5. Nicole Briceno (SMU) def. Alex Rasch (RICE) 6-1, 6-3
6. Kseniia Tokarieva (SMU) def. Emily Braid (RICE) 6-3, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Marta Lesniak/Aleks Malyarschikova (SMU) def. Julie Chao/Ana Guzman (RICE) 8-2
2. Jessica Jackson/Rebecca Lin (RICE) def. Natalia Bubien/Pavi Francis (SMU) 8-5
3. Nicole Briceno/Kseniia Tokarieva (SMU) def. Alex Rasch/Rebekka Hänle (RICE) 9-7
Players Mentioned
