Rice University
Tulane
Gutty Win Gives Owls Invite Title
3/18/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 18, 2012
Box Score | 54th Rice Invite Photo Gallery 
Sam Garforth-Bles rebounded from a 4-1 deficit in the second set to stage a stirring rally and lead the 64th ranked Rice Owls to 4-3 win over 63rd ranked Tulane in the championship match of the 54th Rice Invitational at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium on Sunday.
The Owls captured the team title, winning all three matches. Memphis who entered the weekend ranked 34th, downed Iowa 4-0 in the first match of the day to finish the weekend 2-1, while the Green Wave finished 1-2 and the Hawkeyes 0-3.
"I am really proud of Sam for hanging in there and battling, but he's done that since he has been here," Rice head coach Ron Smarr said. "We did not play like I thought we should in doubles, but we played singles very tough. I am proud of all of them."
Tulane took a 1-0 lead after doubles, thanks to wins at No. 1 and No. 2, with both teams erasing early deficits. Faced with the task of winning four of six singles matches to avoid a loss, Rice seniors Christian Saravia and Michael Nuesslein and sophomore Philipp Seifert each carved out first set wins, but Tulane answered with three wins of its own in the opening singles sets, meaning one of the Owls would need to produce a third-set victory to produce the clinching point.
Enter Garforth-Bles.
As a sophomore he had battled back from the brink of elimination to produce a three-set win to help clinch the C-USA title over Tulsa. Later that same season, he stormed back from a 5-2 deficit to clinch an upset win over #25 Washington in the NCAA Tournament. On Friday, he won consecutive tie-break sets to clinch the match against 34th ranked Memphis. On Sunday, he found himself on the Jake Hess Stadium court, in front of both tennis fans and other Rice fans who had just exited the baseball game, with his team needing another comeback.
"I had to get over a hump because I was beating myself up a little bit. He (Tulane's Idan Mark) is a tricky player and he plays a style that is not my favorite," Garforth-Bles said. "But with the help of Efe (Ustundag, Rice assistant coach) and the fans I was able to get re-focused."
While he was falling behind in the second set, Saravia and Nuesslein capped straight set wins to put the Owls up 2-1. After the Green Wave knotted the score at 2-2, Seifert shook off a rough patch in the middle of his second set to win at No.5 to move the Owls to a 3-2 advantage.
Garforth-Bles stormed back to win the next three games, then dropped the next to trail 5-4. At the same time, Jonathan Chang was down 5-3 in his second set at No. 3, placing the Owls two games from defeat. Chang would lose his second set and match, but Garforth- Bles combined his own strong play with serving errors by Mark to take the second set 7-5 and set up the climatic third set.
He kept the pace up in the third set, breaking Mark's first service game to race to a 2-0 lead. Even after Mark fought off several break points to hold and cut the lead to 2-1, Garforth-Bles was unrelenting, winnng the last four games to win 6-1 and give the Owls a hard-fought 11th win of the season.
College tennis' career wins leader picked up a memorable 866th on Sunday, but Smarr knows the Owls' rebound from some earlier missteps is filled with challenges over the next several weeks.
"We've got a tough match coming up next week in Las Vegas with Denver, who is nationally ranked and just got two players back in the lineup. They just beat Northwestern. Down the road, we've still got TCU, SMU, Oklahoma, Tulsa and Texas A&M. We're a lot better off than we were three weeks ago, but we're just getting started you look at the challenges in front of us," Smarr stated
Players Mentioned
