Rice University
UTSA
Quick Start Fuels Showcase Sweep
2/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu)
Adam Gustafsson capped a perfect weekend and joined with Jake Hansen and Henrik Munch to sweep through singles by dropping only three combined games as the 30th ranked Rice men's tennis team snapped a three-match losing streak against UTSA with a 4-0 win at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Sunday.
The Owls improved to 12-2 on the year by taking all three matches in the 2016 C-USA Showcase. UAB finished 2-1, Southern Miss 1-2 and UTSA 0-3.
After sluggish starts in the doubles portion of their two wins on Saturday, the Owls stormed out of the gates on Sunday, and Owls head coach Efe Ustundag said the team's recent history against UTSA was the reason.
"We had juniors on this team who had never beaten UTSA," Ustundag said. "Last year, we lost to them in the two most important matches of the year, the first ever match at George R. Brown Tennis Center and then in the conference finals. Even though this is a different UTSA team, our guys wanted to really come out and set a tone, which they did," he stated.
Rice took the first point of the day by dropping only three combined games on courts two and three and then carried that momentum over into singles as Gustafsson, Hansen and Munch made quick work of their opponents.
"It was nice to see that we came out in doubles and really took care of business," Ustundag said. "Very happy with the total effort this weekend. We got off the court quickly in each match so even though we played a lot of tennis this weekend, we came through it in good shape."
The Owls improved to 12-2 at the midpoint of the 2016 dual season, but Ustundag said the second half of the season will see an increasing number of challenging matchups, beginning with their trip to San Diego over spring break. Rice will face No. 24 San Diego and No. 29 Stanford in addition to competing in the West Coast Doubles Championship.
"This is a big weekend for us, but the guys are coming off a tough week in school and it's great to head into spring break on a three-match winning streak," Ustundag added.
