Rice University
Boise State
Owls Blaze Through Day One of Blue Gray Action
2/24/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu) - The Rice men's tennis team got off to a blazing start on the first day of action at the 69th Blue Gray National Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Alabama, racing past Boise State 4-0 in the opener and then capturing the doubles point vs. Virginia Tech without dropping a game.
The second seeded Owls, currently ranked 46th in the nation, and Hokies will resume their match with the singles portion at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning with the winner advancing to face the winner of the match between top seed South Carolina and Auburn. The losers of the two early matches will meet later on Saturday in the third place match.
"We had a good day," Rice head coach Efe Ustundag said. "We came out with a great doubles effort in the morning and took command right from the start. We felt going in that we were the favorite in the match and I felt like we played like one. We kept it up in singles. Unfortunately the second point came when Eric's (Rutledge) opponent (Morgan Stone) sustained an injury and had to retire. That was a shame to see and we wish him a speedy recovery. But Jake Hansen followed up right after that with a solid match to push it to 3-0."
Senior David Warren provided the clinching point, rallying from a 4-1 deficit in the second set to down Pedro Platzeck, 6-4, 6-4 and the Owls were leading in the active sets in all three other matches when Warren closed things out.
The Owls returned to the courts later on Friday afternoon to take on Virginia Tech in the doubles part of their semifinal match. The Hokies advanced after surprising No. 50 Alabama 4-2, but the Owls made quick work of the first point, sweeping to 6-0 wins at the first and third doubles lines.
Ustundag said he is intrigued to see how his team responds to the overnight break between singles and doubles and knows the Hokies will have ample time to shake off the doubles point.
"We came back out this afternoon with a lot of energy. I hope we come out with the same level of intensity tomorrow, but I really don't know how the break will affect us. We're going to approach tomorrow as if we are in a dual and we are starting with singles and the score is 0-0. Tomorrow is a whole new game."
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,3
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
5,3,4
Players Mentioned
