Owls Fall in Baylor Invite Second Round
9/23/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Sept. 23, 2011
Four members of the Rice men's tennis team found mixed results in the opening day of play in the 2011 Baylor-HEB Invitational in Waco, Texas as senior Sam Garforth-Bles was the only player to move on to Saturday action.
Garforth-Bles dropped his opening match to UTSA's Martin Ayala but came back to win his first consolation match to move on to the round of 16 where he will face Louisiana-Lafayette's Brandon Farine at noon on Saturday.
A pair of Owls won their opening matches only to fall in their second contests. Senior Michael Nuesslein swept past Carl Alberton of Louisiana-Lafayette 6-0, 6-0 in his first round match and then fell to the tournament's top seed, Costin Paval of Oklahoma, 6-3, 6-2. Peter Frank kicked off his fall season with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Luke Joyce of Midwestern University, but then dropped a 6-3, 7-5 verdict to Lars Behlen of Baylor.
Harry Fowler, who came into the tournament as the second seed and ranked 41st in the country, was forced to withdraw from his opening match because of an injury.
Prior to his singles match, Fowler teamed with Nuesslein to drop a hard-fought 8-6 doubles decision to Elliot Minvielle and Ted Nilsson of Louisiana-Lafayette. Frank and Garforth-Bles also dropped their opening doubles match, falling in a tiebreaker to Jason Lateko and Yauhen Yakaulev of UTA, 9-8 (4).
The Owls will be back in action next weekend when they host the Rice Fall Invitational at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium September 30-October 2.
Players Mentioned
