Rice University
Lamar
Owls Open Dual Slate with Shutout
1/21/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu) -
The Rice women's tennis team opened its 2017 dual campaign in impressive fashion, racing to a 7-0 win over the Lamar Cardinals at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Saturday evening.
The match marked the first time in the three-year history of the Owls' new home when the women played under the lights, but Schmidt said the new experience had little effect on her squad.
"It's my first time as the head coach at Rice to be playing under the lights," Schmidt noted. "Honestly, we have such a great facility and great lights that I don't think it made that much of a difference."
Rice opened the season last weekend by facing off against three opponents in duals and singles as part of SMU's Metroplex Mania event and Schmidt was pleased to see her team build on the lessons learned from the opening weekend of competition.
"Some of the things we've been working on in practice, we saw on the courts," Schmidt said. "The energy was good, but we can cut out some of the errors that we made today and we'll keep working to tighten a few things up, but I think we did some things well today."
The Owls swept to straight set wins on all six singles courts after taking the opening doubles point with wins on courts two and three. Wendy Zhang set the tone early in singles, taking a 6-0, 6-0 win over Lamar's Katya Lapayeva.
Rice will travel to Auburn, Alabama next weekend to participate in the ITA Kickoff Weekend. They will face 18th ranked USC in an opening round match on Saturday, with the winner set to face the winner of the match between host Auburn and Fresno State on Sunday for a berth in the ITA National Indoor Championship.
Rice 7, Lamar University Doubles competition
1. Alison Ho/Wendy Zhang (RICE) vs. Katya Lapayeva/Anna Spengler (LU-W) 2-5, unfinished
2. Lindsey Hodge/Priya Niezgoda (RICE) def. Stephanie Marchena/Talisa Merchiers (LU-W) 6-2
3. Savannah Durkin/Fernanda Astete (RICE) def. Hanna Elfving/Jasmin Buchta (LU-W) 6-2
Singles competition
1. Wendy Zhang (RICE) def. Katya Lapayeva (LU-W) 6-0, 6-0
2. Lindsey Hodge (RICE) def. Anna Spengler (LU-W) 6-2, 6-3
3. Alison Ho (RICE) def. Jasmin Buchta (LU-W) 6-1, 7-6 (7-5)
4. Savannah Durkin (RICE) def. Talisa Merchiers (LU-W) 6-3, 6-1
5. Fernanda Astete (RICE) def. Stephanie Marchena (LU-W) 6-2, 6-4
6. Priya Niezgoda (RICE) def. Sanja Jolic (LU-W) 6-2, 6-3
Match Notes:Lamar University 1-1Rice 1-0Order of finish: Doubles (3,2); Singles (1,4,6,2,3,5)
Players Mentioned
