Owls Open With Sweep

Saturday, January 14

George R. Brown Tennis Center

4:00 PM

Rice University

Lamar

1/14/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

Jan. 14, 2017

Final Stats

by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu) -

Jake Hansen and Eric Rutledge won twice to lead an effort that saw contributions from the entire lineup as the Rice men's tennis team opened its 2017 dual season with wins over Texas Rio Grande Valley (7-0) and Lamar (6-1) at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Saturday.

Rice made quick work of an undermanned Vaqueros squad that could only field four players in the morning match and then shook off a strong challenge by Lamar in doubles to erase memories of last year's 4-1 loss in Beaumont. Head coach Efe Ustundag said he was pleased with the way his team met the variety of challenges the first day of competition presented.

"It's always tricky when you're playing a first match against a team that is missing a couple of players, so focus was the key," Ustundag said. "It's always nice to have some of your bench players come out and finish some good matches. We knew in Lamar we had a Day One opponent who had won their conference last year and beat us at their place. We put ourselves in a situation in doubles where we were down 5-2 and at set point on court three, but then thanks to some great fight and great fan support found a way to pull through that. "

After winning all but one set in the shutout of UTRGV, the Owls found themselves challenge from the outset against Lamar. The Owls' ninth ranked duo of Tommy Bennett and David Warren were in a see saw battle on court one while Lamar took leads on the other two courts.

Jake Hansen and Eric Rutledge fought back from match point down 5-2 to move into position to deliver the clinching point after Bennett and Warren picked up their second win of the day.

Ustundag said the lingering effects of the rally in doubles sparked a strong start for Rice in singles.

"I think a couple of their guys didn't respond well to the doubles loss and gave us a chance to jump up a set on a number of courts," Ustundag said. "To our credit, we took advantage of the opening and didn't give them a chance to get back into the match."

While the Owls race to quick leads on three singles courts, Ustundag said he was especially pleased with the way junior Jamie Malik shook of a tough early 4-1 deficit to rebound with a straight set win.

"Jamie has been on this entire week and played some real quality tennis so we were just trying to remind him that his training and play had been solid and just rely on that. Once he got one break back at 5-3 then he felt pretty good and his serve started working for him."

The Owls will be back at home next weekend when they host No. 16 Texas A&M on Saturday at 1 p.m.