Abdel Aziz Clinches Marathon Win over Lamar

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Men's Tennis

vs Ralston/Neufeld Coaches Challenge

Oct 31

Dallas, Texas

Men's Tennis

vs ITA Conference Masters

Nov 6

Men's Tennis

vs NCAA Individual Championships

Nov 18

The Lead: Mohamed Abdel Aziz ground out a three-set win at the third singles position to clinch a marathon 4-1 win for Rice over Lamar at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center on Saturday. The match opened at the Thompson Family Tennis Center on the Lamar campus, but was forced to the covered courts because of rain. With only two courts available to complete play, the match lasted over six hours.

Doubles: The Owls (10-11) took early lead on all three doubles courts in the early outdoor action but saw those leads evaporate after the venue change. Abdel Aziz and Karol Paluch held off a Cardinals challenge at the second line to finish first with a 6-4 win. Lamar (6-14) won the first four games at the first line to tie the match 5-5 before Conrad Russell and Sumit Sarkar rallied to take a 7-5 decision to clinch the key first point.

Singles: The teams split the opening singles matches, with each extended to three sets. Eric Rutledge putting Rice ahead to stay with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win and Russell wasted little time in adding a third point with a quick 6-2, 6-2 win at the fourth line. Abdel Aziz shook off an opening set loss as well as a break when serving for the match to break back in the next game to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and end the lengthy match.

Efe Ustundag: "We found a way to get the win today in some difficult circumstances. We got out to a great start when we were outdoors, but we didn't respond well at the start to the change in venue. It was a covered court complex and two of the courts were not available because they were wet. But we found a way to get the doubles point, and that was key to have that first point on the board. That point took some of the pressure off of use in singles. We started with the first two singles matches and we split a pair of 6-4 third sets. All season, Sumit has been the hunter, but thanks to his recent success he is now the man with the target on his back. He's always playing their best player, but he has always been the underdog. Now that he's a ranked player, his mentality has to change in order to stay hungry. He had a tough day today and I felt that his opponent was the more deserving player today, even when Sumit had tied it 4-4 in the third. Eric lost his second set, but he stuck to his game plan and was able to get the win and it was big to get the lead back. Conrad really did a great job of getting off the court quickly and really shift the momentum to us with a 3-1 lead. Mo played a very gritty second set to get even and then shook off the late break to get a break and clinch it. He had a tough set of results last weekend, so it was good to see him get the clinch. It was good win on the road and now we come home for the final four matches of the year. Hopefully we can have some good GRBTC magic the next two weeks to set us up for the C-USA Championship.

Up Next: The Owls will welcome Southern Miss, UAB and UTSA to Houston next weekend for the fourth annual conference pod event. The teams will play one match each day in a round robin format, with the Owls and Golden Eagles meeting a10 a.m. on Friday on the south courts and Blazers and Roadrunners meeting at the same time on the north courts. Play continues through Sunday.

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