Rice University
Texas
Horns Halt Owls
3/13/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu) -
Lindsey Hodge downed the nation's 26th ranked player and the 41st ranked Rice women's tennis team stormed back from an early deficit but No. 32 Texas staged a rally of their own to fashion a 4-3 win over the Owls at Whitaker Courts in Austin on Monday afternoon.
Texas took an early lead when Bianca Turati and Katie Poluta snapped a 4-4 tie to win the final two games to clinch the doubles point for the Longhorns, but the Owls blasted out of the gate at the start of singles.
Hodge and Savannah Durkin quickly gave Rice a 2-1 lead with straight set wins on courts one and six Hodge raced past Turati, 6-3, 6-3 while Durkin downed Dani Wagland, 6-3, 6-4
Katherine Ip and Wendy Zhang gave the Owls two more first set wins, but needed extra playing time to do so. Ip battled back from a 5-2 deficit in the first set against 62nd ranked Petra Granic to win a tiebreaker, 7-0, while Zhang ground out a 7-4 first set tiebreaker over No 87 Neda Koprcina .
Ip continued her strong play in the second set to win 7-6, 6-4 to move the Owls to within one point of clinching the win. Meanwhile Fernanda Astete and Alison Ho rebounded from first set losses to force third sets on courts four and five.
But the Longhorns staged a rally of their own, and eventually closed out the more than four hour match when Koprcina held off a last charge by Zhang to win 6-7, 6-4, 6-4
"Obviously, this is a tough one to swallow but our team competed to the bitter end and put ourselves in a winning position," Rice head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said "Now it is a matter of lifting ourselves back up, going back to work, and getting ready for the opportunities that lay ahead for us."
The Owls will return to action on Sunday when they host Memphis at the George R. Brown Tennis Center. First serves are set for 11 a.m.
Rice vs Texas
3/13/2017 at Austin, Texas
(Whitaker Courts)
#32 Texas 4, #41 Rice 3
Singles competition
1. Lindsey Hodge (RICE) def. #26 Bianca Turati (UT) 6-3, 6-3
2. #87 Neda Koprcina (UT) def. Wendy Zhang (RICE) 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4
3. Katherine Ip (RICE) def. #62 Petra Granic (UT) 7-6 (7-0), 6-4
4. Anna Turati (UT) def. Fernanda Astete (RICE) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4
5. Katie Poluta (UT) def. Alison Ho (RICE) 6-4, 0-6, 6-1
6. Savannah Durkin (RICE) def. Dani Wagland (UT) 6-3, 6-4
Doubles competition
1. #52 Dani Wagland/Petra Granic (UT) def. #80 Lindsey Hodge/Wendy Zhang (RICE) 6-2
2. #41 Alison Ho/Priya Niezgoda (RICE) def. Neda Koprcina/Anna Turati (UT) 6-2
3. Bianca Turati/Katie Poluta (UT) def. Savannah Durkin/Katherine Ip (RICE) 6-4
Match Notes:
Rice 9-3; National ranking #41
Texas 6-4; National ranking #32
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,6,3,5,4,2)
T-4:07
Players Mentioned
