
Owls Open with Sweep
1/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
The Rice men's tennis team opened their 2016 dual season by sweeping Abilene Christian and Prairie View A&M at the the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Friday. Rice opened play by downing ACU 6-1 in the afternoon and then returned to the courts later in the day to blank the Panthers, 7-0.
Sophomore Jamie Malik won both of his singles and doubles matches on the day as did freshman Emanual Llamas. Junior David Warren captured both singles matches, while his two doubles matches with senior Adam Gustafsson were not completed after the Owls other duos win to capture the doubles point. Playing at the top of the singles lineup, Gustafsson spilt his two matches.
Freshman Jake Hansen picked up a singles win in the opener in addition to winning twice in doubles with Llamas. Junior Tommy Bennett was extended to a tiebreaker before winning his lone singles match of the afternoon after earlier combining with Malik for a doubles win.
Bennett did not compete in the nightcap with Prairie View as junior Henrik Munch stepped in a picked up wins in doubles with Malik and in singles. After his win against Praire View in doubles, Hansen was replaced by fellow freshman Dongwei Peng who gave the Owls a 3-0 lead over the Panthers with his first career dual win.
The Owls will be back in action on January 24 when they join with the Rice women's team to host Maryland-Baltimore County. The men's match is slated for 10 a.m. while the women's match will start at 1.