Rice University
Texas A&M
Aggies Hold Off Owls
3/31/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 31, 2010
Texas A&M weathered the loss of the doubles point to come back and take four straight singles matches and earn its first win over Rice in three years, taking a 4-3 decision at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station on Wednesday night.
The 39th ranked Owls (10-9), who had defeated #12 Texas A&M (15-4) the last two seasons and also won a match over 24th ranked Oklahoma State earlier this year on the Mitchell Center courts, took a 1-0 lead in the match thanks to a win at No. 2 doubles by Isamu Tachibana and Bruno Rosa.
However the Aggies stormed back to take the three matches in straight sets, and then clinched it when Alexey Grigorov defeated Sam Garforth-Bles in a pair of tiebreakers at No. 4.
Rice senior All American Bruno Rosa close the match in style for the Owls. Rose, currently ranked 47th, won a third set tie-breaker to defeat 8th ranked Austin Krajicek and close the final margin to 4-3.
The Owls will be back in action next weekend with a pair of home matches against Tulsa (April 9) and Oklahoma (April 11). Both contests will start at 1 pm at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.
#12 Texas A&M 4, #39 Rice 3
Singles competition
1. #47 Bruno Rosa (RICE) def. #8 Austin Krajicek (TEXASA&M) 6-4, 3-6, 8-7 (8-6)
2. #46 Jeff Dadamo (TEXASA&M) def. Michael Nuesslein (RICE) 6-1, 6-1
3. #121 Alexis Klegou (TEXASA&M) def. Oscar Podlewski (RICE) 7-5, 6-4
4. Alexey Grigorov (TEXASA&M) def. Sam Garforth-Bles (RICE) 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3)
5. Alberto Bautista (TEXASA&M) def. Isamu Tachibana (RICE) 6-4, 6-4
6. Christian Saravia (RICE) def. Niall Angus (TEXASA&M) 5-7, 6-4, 6-4
Doubles competition
1. #5 Austin Krajicek/Jeff Dadamo (TEXASA&M) def. #62 Michael Nuesslein/Christian Saravia (RICE) 8-4
2. #51 Isamu Tachibana/Bruno Rosa (RICE) def. Alexey Grigorov/Alberto Bautista (TEXASA&M) 8-6
3. Oscar Podlewski/Dennis Polyakov (RICE) def. Alexis Klegou/Marcus Lunt (TEXASA&M) 8-6
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (2,5,3,4,6,1)
Players Mentioned
