Rice University
Drake University
Early Deficit Dooms Owls
1/29/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu) -
After repelling multiple chances to call it a day, the Rice men's tennis team found itself one answer short of completing remarkable rally, dropping a 4-3 decision to Drake in the consolation round of the ITA Kickoff at the Weller Indoor Tennis Center in Austin on Sunday.
The Owls (4-3) improbably stormed back from a 3-0 deficit in the match that lasted 3:30, alternately wasting good fortune and creating new opportunities when on the verge of defeat before the Bulldogs finally prevailed with a three-set win on court four.
"It's a disappointing loss, but every loss is disappointing," Rice head coach Efe Ustundag said. "We had the doubles point on our racket, but let it get away for the first time this year and then even though we started out in singles much better than yesterday, it came down to Drake converting more of the opportunities than we did."
The Owls opened the doubles action strongly as ninth-ranked Tommy Bennett and David Warren stormed to a 6-1 win on court one, but Drake fought of a deciding point on court two and grabbed the point with 7-5 wins on both courts two and three.
Needing four singles wins to win the match, the Owls bettered their Saturday performance in the first sets of singles, splitting the six matches. Drake maintained the early pace in two of those matches to push the lead to 3-0 before Jamie Malik responded with a straight-set win of his own on court two. Each of the final three matches were extended to three sets, including a pair of improbable rallies by the Owls.
On court six, Emanuel Llamas, who had fought back from a first-set tiebreak loss to even his match, found himself down 4-2 before rattling off four straight games to cut the margin to 3-2.
Meanwhile on court three, Jake Hansen and Ben Stride traded multiple service breaks down the stretch, with Hansen twice breaking to stave off defeat, to force a tiebreaker which Hansen finally captured, 7-5 to tie the match and leave the final outcome to court four.
Rice's Eric Rutledge and DU's Barnaby Thorold battled evenly through three sets of tennis, but Thorold managed one break early in the third and never wavered, clinching the day for the Bulldogs.
"These are the types of matches were we have to get better at finding ways to win," Ustundag said. "We are going to be in a lot of matches with teams that are pretty evenly matched. In order to win them, we've got to make sure that the next time we are in this situation, we know how to find a way to get the win."
Drake 4, Rice 3
1. #73 Vinny Gillespie (DU) def. Tommy Bennett (RICE) 6-4, 6-2
2. Jamie Malik (RICE) def. Calum MacGeoch (DU) 7-5, 6-4
3. Jake Hansen (RICE) def. Ben Stride (DU) 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5)
4. Barnaby Thorold (DU) def. Eric Rutledge (RICE) 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-4
5. Tom Hands (DU) def. David Warren (RICE) 6-4, 7-6 (7-2)
6. Emanuel Llamas (RICE) def. Ben Wood (DU) 6-7, 6-2, 6-4
Doubles competition
1. David Warren/Tommy Bennett (RICE) def. Vinny Gillespie/Calum MacGeoch (DU) 6-1
2. Ben Stride/Ben Wood (DU) def. Oscar Janglin/Emanuel Llamas (RICE) 7-5
3. Tom Hands/Barnaby Thorold (DU) def. Eric Rutledge/Jake Hansen (RICE) 7-5
Match Notes:
Drake 3-1
Rice 4-3
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (1,5,2,6,3,4)
ITA Kick-Off Weekend
Consolation Match
T-3:30
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,3,2
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
1,5,2,6,3,4
Players Mentioned
