Rice University
Texas A&M
Freshmen Lead Owls Over #12 Texas A&M
4/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 13, 2009
The Rice Owls rode the stellar play of three freshmen to close out their regular season with a 4-3 upset victory over 12th-ranked Texas A&M at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station.
The 40th-ranked Owls closed out the regular season with a 15-9 record and head into their first round match at the Conference USA Championships in Orlando, Florida with their second road win this season over a Top 20 opponent. They defeated Miami in Coral Gables in February,
Freshman Christian Saravia, who earlier teamed with fellow freshman Sam Garforth-Bles to clinch the doubles point, clinched the match with a three-set win at No. 6 singles over Austin Klores of A&M, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-2. After dropping the second set, Saravia fell down 2-1 in the deciding set, then won five straight games to give the Owls the win.
Saravia and Sam Garforth-Bles gave the Owls a 1-0 lead on the night after they outlasted their Aggie opponents to take the No. 3 Doubles match, 9-8.
A&M struck back to take a 3-1 lead in the match thanks to consecutive wins at the top three singles spots, but Rice battled back to tie it with wins by Garorth-Bles at No. 4 and freshman Isamu Tachibana at No. 5 to set up the night's deciding match between Saravia and Klores.
The second-seeded Owls will travel to Orlando on Thursday and open play in the C-USA Championships when they meet seventh-seeded UAB at 4 p,m.
Tennis Match Results
Rice vs Texas A&M
4/13/2009 at College Station, Texas
(George P. Mitchell Tennis Center)
#40 Rice 4, #12 Texas A&M 3
Singles competition
1. #19 Conor Pollock (TEXASA&M) def. #48 Bruno Rosa (RICE) 6-2, 6-3
2. #51 Austin Krajicek (TEXASA&M) def. #46 Christoph Müller (RICE) 6-2, 6-1
3. #30 Wil Spencer (TEXASA&M) def. Tobias Scheil (RICE) 6-4, 6-0
4. Sam Garforth-Bles (RICE) def. Alexey Grigorov (TEXASA&M) 6-4, 6-1
5. Isamu Tachibana (RICE) def. Marcus Lunt (TEXASA&M) 6-3, 6-2
6. Christian Saravia (RICE) def. Austin Klores (TEXASA&M) 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-2
Doubles competition
1. #3 Conor Pollock/Austin Krajicek (TEXASA&M) def. #52 Tobias Scheil/Christoph Müller (RICE) 8-3
2. Bruno Rosa/Isamu Tachibana (RICE) def. Austin Klores/Alexey Grigorov (TEXASA&M) 8-3
3. Christian Saravia/Sam Garforth-Bles (RICE) def. Wil Spencer/Marcus Lunt (TEXASA&M) 9-8
Players Mentioned
