Rice University
Tulane
Rice Fights off Tulane for Milestone Win
4/17/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu)
On a day set aside to honor its senior, a pair of Rice freshmen proved to be the difference as the 26th ranked Owls ground out a 4-3 win over No. 28 Tulane and reach 20 wins for the first time in over decade. The match began at the George R. Brown Tennis Center before moving indoors for the decisive final two matches.
Freshmen Emanuel Llamas and Jake Hansen won a tiebreaker set in doubles to set the stage for the Owls to take the first point of the day and both added singles wins for the Owls who honored senior Adam Gustafsson after a thrilling doubles point.
After Tulane took a 6-2 win on court two, the Owls forced tiebreakers on courts one and three. Hansen and Llamas emerged with a 7-5 win and Tommy Bennett and David Warren followed shortly after with a similar score. Bennett and Warren vaulted into the national rankings at No. 40 after beating a pair of top 40 teams last weekend and they added to their run of success by beating Tulane's 17th ranked tandem of Chi-Shan Jao and Dominik Koepfer in a 7-5 tiebreak.
Warren quickly added a second point to the Owls total with a 6-1, 6-1 win on court five to raise his team-best singles record to 15-2. Hansen added the third point with a straight set win on four, but the clinching point would prove far more elusive.
Tulane won first sets on the first three courts and picked up its first point with a win on court three. However Bennett and Jamie Malik refused to go quietly against ranked opponents on the first two courts.
Facing the nation's top ranked singles player in Dominik Koepfer, Bennett fought back to win a tiebreaker in the second set while Malik also forced a third set against No. 99 Constantin Schmitz before falling to close the gap to 3-2.
Llamas seemed poised to deliver the clinching point by taking a 4-0 lead in his third set on court six. But Tulane's Ian Van Cott stormed back and was poised to close to 5-4 with a service break when the match was suspended as the persistent mist that had been a staple for most of the day turned into heavier rain.
The action shifted indoors to the MET at the Downtown Club for the matches on courts one and six and when play resumed after a delay of over an hour, Van Cott completed the break and followed with a hold to draw even at 5-5. The two players then traded holds to force a tiebreaker that would decide the outcome of the day's action.
Meanwhile the match between Bennett and Koepfer, which had been suspended with Koepfer up 3-0, saw Bennett draw even before Koepfer reclaimed the lead to take a 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 win, leaving it up to Van Cott and Llamas to decide the outcome. The win was Koepfer's 100th career singles win, but Bennett was only the fourth player to take him to three sets this year, and just the second to win a tiebreaker set against him.
Van Cott had two opportunities to close things out, but Llamas fought off both and then closed out the match by taking an 8-6 win.
The Owls closed the regular season at 20-7; including a 19-1 mark at home (4-1 vs. top 30 teams at home). The 20 wins are the most in a season for the Owls since 2004 when they finished 24-3 on their way to the Sweet 16.
They will be back on the George R. Brown courts on Friday when they open play in the 2016 Conference USA Championship. Pairings for the tournament will be released on Monday.
Players Mentioned
