Rice University
Ul Lafayette
Warren Keys Sunday Sweep
2/14/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu)
David Warren delivered four points and his Rice men's tennis teammates shook off a sluggish start to race to a pair of 4-0 wins over Louisiana-Lafayette and Incarnate Word at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Sunday.
Rice head coach Efe Ustundag said he had a sense the 50th ranked Owls may have been already looking ahead to a pair of showdowns next weekend with No. 45 Princeton and No. 26 Texas as they warmed up for the day's first match against a Louisiana-Lafayette team that had defeated No. 66 North Florida last week.
"We might have been looking ahead a little to next weekend, which is a huge one for us and I was a little nervous about Louisiana because they beat a ranked team last week," Unstundag said. "I had a sense during our final warmup and I told the team they had to make an effort to ramp up their intensity because I didn't feel like it was where we need it to be. And that is what happened, we went down breaks on two courts," he stated.
Warren and Adam Gustafsson found themselves in a 4-1 hole on court one, but the duo rallied to win five straight games, setting the stage for Jamie Malik and Henrik Munch to clinch the doubles point with a 6-4 win.
Warren carried his momentum over to singles, racing to a win on court four to increase the Owls' lead to 2-0. Freshman Emanuel Llamas and Gustafsson provided the final points to clinch the match.
The Owls continued to roll in the nightcap against Incarnate Word, led by Warren who combined with Gustafsson to clinch the doubles point and following that win with a 6-0, 6-0 win in singles.
"We were pretty solid in singles all day, led by David who was solid in both matches," Ustundag said.
Warren's twin wins in singles improved his season record to 8-0 and ran his dual match unbeaten streak to 17 matches dating back to last season.
Ustundag said he hopes the Owls will take stock in the need to start fast in future matches.
"I like the fact that the guys are responding well and our depth has helped us. We were able to claw back into it, but when we play that is as good as we are, it's going to be an uphill battle if we don't come out ready to play," he added.
Players Mentioned
