Rice University
UAB
Owls and Monarchs to Battle for Crown
4/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
By Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu)
The 26th ranked Rice men's tennis are one match away from completing a journey that fell one match short a year ago as they advanced to their second consecutive Conference USA Men's Tennis championship match with a 4-1 win over a determined UAB Blazer squad at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Saturday.
The top-seeded Owls (22-7) will face No. 45 ODU (19-4) in the championship match at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning.
In 2015, the Owls took the top seed in the championship match before falling to third-seeded UTSA and seeing their season come to a close. Head coach Efe Ustundag said he was pleased how his team responded to the challenges from UAB on the court while not letting any thoughts of future matches impede their progress, especially since the Owls had blanked UAB in a dual match in March.
"It was a tough match. When you get this late into the season, every match is tough," Ustundag said. "Somebody is playing for their season; somebody is playing for their career. So you might have favorites out there but everybody is giving their all. Everything has a much different feeling than the regular season. I'm happy that our guys reacted well. We took our chances when we could and closed out the matches we needed to get the win."
Rice grabbed the doubles point with wins on courts two and three and then saw the clinch provided by three players who were not on the court in 2015.
Freshmen Jake Hansen and Emanuel Llamas delivered the second and clinching fourth points, while junior Tommy Bennett, who redshirted last year while recuperating from an injury, the third for the Owls. This marks the eight time in the 11 years since Rice joined C-USA that the Owls have reached the finals of the men's tennis tournament, but the Owls have won only one title. That win came in 2010, which was also the last time the Owls hosted the event.
Ustundag said he knows that the Monarchs loom as a large hurdle if his team can repeat the 2010 success.
"Old Dominion provides a lot of tough matchups," Ustundag said. "Yes, we are the top seed but I don't necessarily see us as the favorites because last year we were the number one seed. This is an Old Dominion team that is minus only one player from the team that beat us at home (in 2015) and they are riding a hot streak. It's going to be a battle and whoever has the better day is going to win.
