Rice University
UCF
Knights Turn Back Owls Early Bid
4/6/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu) -
The Rice women's tennis team saw an early opportunity to dampen UCF's Senior Day festivities slip away as the 22nd ranked Knights posted a 4-0 win over the Owls at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Florida on Friday.
Needing four singles wins after the Knights grabbed the doubles point, Rice picked up a first set win by Savannah Durkin and then saw Wendy Zhang, Michaela Haet and Priya Niezgoda take their first sets to tiebreakers. But UCF quelled the threat by winning all three, setting the stage to clinch the match with wins fourth, first and third singles.
"Credit to UCF. They played a solid match," Rice head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. "Obviously would have been interesting to see what would have happened if we could have gotten a couple of those tiebreakers but the reality is we didn't. Now, we have to refocus and get prepared for USF."
The Owls will close out their 2018 regular season road schedule on Sunday when they face USF in Tampa on Sunday. They return home next week to celebrate their own Senior Day on Saturday, April 14 before turning their focus on defending their C-USA Championship in Murfreesboro, Tennessee the following weekend.
Rice vs UCF
4/6/2018 at Orlando Fla.
(USTA National Campus)
#22 UCF 4, #44 Rice 0
Singles competition
1. Ksenia Kuznetsova (UCF-W) def. Lindsey Hodge (RICEW) 6-1, 6-2
2. Maria Martinez (UCF-W) vs. #119 Wendy Zhang (RICEW) unfinished
3. Rebeka Stolmar (UCF-W) def. Michaela Haet (RICEW) 7-6 (7-4), 6-3
4. Monica Matias (UCF-W) def. Anna Bowtell (RICEW) 6-3, 6-2
5. Silvia Bordes (UCF-W) vs. Savannah Durkin (RICEW) unfinished
6. Natalia Serrano (UCF-W) vs. Priya Niezgoda (RICEW) unfinished
Doubles competition
1. #72 Ksenia Kuznetsova/Maria Martinez (UCF-W) def. #31 Wendy Zhang/Lindsey Hodge (RICEW) 6-3
2. Fernanda Astete/Priya Niezgoda (RICEW) def. Silvia Bordes/Rebeka Stolmar (UCF-W) 6-4
3. Monica Matias/Natalia Serrano (UCF-W) def. Savannah Durkin/Michaela Haet (RICEW) 6-3
Match Notes:
Rice 11-7; National ranking #44
UCF 17-2; National ranking #22
Order of finish:
Doubles (3,2,1);
Singles (4,1,3)
T-2:35 A-118
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,2,1
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
4,1,3
Players Mentioned
