Tech Downs Owls in Blue Gray Opener

Friday, February 22

Montgomery, Alabama

9:00 AM

Rice University

#32 Texas Tech

Photo by: Maria Lysaker - Rice University

2/22/2019 4:41:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

Rice leads Auburn 1-0 heading into singles on Saturday

By: Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu)

The Lead: Rice jumped out to an early lead with a strong effort in doubles only to see its hopes for an upset of Texas Tech fall short in singles as the Red Raiders took a 4-2 decision in the opening round of action at the 71^st Blue Gray National Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Alabama on Friday. The Owls continued their strong doubles play by grabbing the doubles point vs. Auburn later in the day.

Doubles: The Owls shook off a loss at the first position to Tech's eighth-ranked duo to take the point with wins on the final two courts. Conrad Russell and Campbell Salmon swept to a 6-2 win at the third position, setting the stage for Jacob Eskeland and Daniel Warren to clinch the point by winning the last two games, 6-4.

Singles: The teams split the first four opening sets of singles evenly and the final two came down to the wire before Tech won the set at one in a tiebreak and on five, 7-5. After Tech tied the match with a win on four, Eric Rutledge gave Rice its final lead of the day, downing Bjorn Thomson 6-4, 6-4 on court three. Tech struck back with wins at one and six and then clinched the match with a three-set win on court five.

Efe Ustundag: "We had a great day in doubles. We were a little timid at No. 1 in the morning and when you play someone of that quality, they are not going to miss any opportunity that you give them. But we took the point with some great play on two and three. Then in singles we were so close to splitting the first sets in singles, and then Sumit (Sarkar) had the big lead in his second set but could not close it out. If he wins that set, we would have been looking at a 2-2 score with three matches in the third sets. As it was, we were down 3-2 and had to win both of those third sets. It was a tough one because I think we caught Tech on a perfect day for us. It was hot and humid, and even though we've not really had those conditions at home lately, that is always to our advantage. During the break before the doubles with Auburn, we talked to the team and made a point to be ready to come out and jump on them and that is what we did. We have to be ready to come back in the morning and play inspired tennis."

Up Next: The Owls will take a 1-0 lead into the singles portion of their consolation match vs. Auburn on Saturday at 10:30 a.m The winner of that match will take on the winner of the second consolation match between Fresno State and Princeton, while the losers in each consolation match will meet in a final match later on Saturday to wrap up the competition.