Rice University Athletics
Rice University
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Owls Bounce Back to Down Islanders
3/25/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu) -
The Rice men's tennis team bounced back from a draining loss the night before to down Texas A&M Corpus Christi 4-1 in the concluding match of the 2018 Texas Tamale Company Rice Invitational at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Wichita State defeated VCU 4-0 to claim the team title in the event's 60th year, but Rice head coach Efe Ustundag was pleased with the way his team bounced back from Saturday night's 4-3 loss to the Shockers which ended the Owls run of 10 consecutive Invitational titles.
"I really felt like we played better and better with each match this weekend. This was the step I was looking for. Could we take it one step further and not complain about the physical part of it and how tired and sore we were. We came out ready to play and did a really good job."
Rice captured the doubles point for the second consecutive match for the first time since the end of January and was able to maintain that momentum into singles, taking five of six first sets.
Jacob Eskeland and Mohamed Abdel-Aziz followed with quick wins to push the Owls to within one point to clinch the match, which Eric Rutledge delivered by closing out the Islanders William Mottet in a second set tiebreaker.
The Owls will return to action next weekend when they compete in a round robin series of matches with Southern Miss, UAB and UTSA San Antonio. Play begins on Friday.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
5,6,3,1
