Rice University
Texas
Owls Fall to Texas, 6-1
3/5/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu) -
Jake Hansen posted a straight set win over the nation's 48th ranked singles player, but eighth ranked Texas captured the crucial points down the stretch to sweep to victories on the remaining courts to take a 6-1 win over No. 34 Rice in Austin on Sunday.
"We fought well on most courts and we almost put ourselves in position to have three matches in third sets," Rice head coach Efe Ustundag said. "Texas is a deep team with no holes in their lineup. We felt that our best shot would be if we could take the doubles point. They played better doubles than we did today, and that was too much to overcome."
Texas opened its quest for an 11th consecutive win over the Owls by grabbing the doubles point with wins at the second and third lines and moved to a 3-0 lead with straight set wins at the first and fifth spots in the lineup.
Hansen struck back to make it 3-1 as he won his sixth consecutive dual match with a 6-3, 7-5 win over the Longhorns Harrison Scott to post his first win to post his first win over a ranked player in dual action as an Owl. The loss was just the second of the season for Scott and allowed Hansen to improve to a team-best 10-3 on the year.
Hansen and Tommy Bennett were the only Owls to win their opening sets of singles, leaving Rice in need of at least two three-set wins to pull the upset. David Warren forced one of the needed third frames by winning his second set against 86th ranked Leo Telles, but Oscar Janglin's effort to join Warren in extending his match fell short, dropping a second-set tiebreaker to Julian Zlobinsky.
Rice will be back on the road next weekend as the Owls travel to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to face UAB, Southern Miss and UTSA in the second annual C-USA Showcase.
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:
5,1,3,6,4,2
Players Mentioned
