Owls Hope for Memorable Senior Day Sendoff

The Rice men's tennis team will look to extend its current four match winning streak and gain some added momentum when they host 42^nd ranked Tulane on Saturday for Senior Day.

Rice (13-11) will honor senior Daniel Warren prior to the match and will also offer free pizza and a raffle for a tennis racquet if weather permits the match to begin on time. Fans can sign up for the raffle online. If the match is delayed by weather, the prematch ceremonies and promotions will be cancelled.

Head Coach Efe Ustundag: "We talked about it a little this morning. Every year at one point in the season, we have had a signature win that helped our season move forward. It's alluded us on a few occasions this year in matches where we competed well. We need to do that tomorrow to see if we can grab that one good, strong win in the last match of the season. It would mean a lot heading into the conference championship. Not so much in terms of seeding going into a wide open and very tough tournament. This is the deepest tournament I can recall since we've been a part of C-USA. Six teams have a legitimate shot at winning it, so going into it with a good, strong win would mean the world. You can never have enough confidence. "

About the Owls: Rice is coming off a weekend sweep during the C-USA Showcase, which allowed the Owls to move back over .500. Sumit Sarkar is currently ranked 44^th in singles and has posted a 15-5 record at the first singles line. His 15 wins are the most by an Owl since Bruno Rosa won 16 in 2008. Sarkar and Eric Rutledge are ranked 39^th in doubles and have an 8-6 record this spring. Freshman Campbell Salmon's four-match winning streak in singles is longest current active streak on the Owls.

About Tulane: The Green Wave (13-11) have won nine of their last 10 after snapping a 10-match losing streak. They opened the year 4-0, including wins over Tennessee and host Florida State in the ITA Kickoff Weekend to earn a spot in the Indoor Nationals. They snapped their losing streak with a 6-0 win over defending C-USA champion Old Dominion in mid-March. Ewan Moore is ranked 68^th in singles and teammate Luis Erlenbusch is ranked 89^th.

Ustundag on Tulane: "On paper, they are the better team. They hit a bit of a bump in their season after defeating Tennessee and Florida State to qualify for Indoor Nationals. They already had a very tough schedule this year, but after some tough matches at Nationals, they ended up losing 10 straight matches. They were easily the best team in the country with a 4-10 record at that time. Since then, they have gone 9-1 and they are certainly back playing at a very high level and have a very strong lineup that does not have any holes. They have played against the best all year. Their season is somewhat in the balance as well since they are on the verge to make the cut to be in the running as an at-large for the NCAA's but we can certainly change that for them if we play and complete well enough. For us, it's a matter of building on what we've had going lately. If we can get everyone to play just that little bit better we'll take it."

Ustundag on Senior Daniel Warren: "Daniel has had a non-traditional ride through his collegiate competition. He walked on his freshman year and then broke his hand. He withdrew from school for a year and attended the University of Houston and was a hitting partner with their women's team. He was a guy who never gave up on the game and then had a second chance to come back to our program. He probably would have gotten major playing time a year ago for us, but then broke his hand in the first match of the dual season. It was like a movie script about bad luck. He finally got back into the lineup the week before conference last year. This year, he's contributed a lot of solid doubles play. He and Jacob (Eskeland) had a lot of quality matches. He's been a very good teammate and an unbelievable supporter even when he wasn't part of the team. He always felt like a member of the team when he was in the stands cheering for us. He's one of the most spirited guys that I've had the chance to be around. He can make things difficult for opponents when he is in the stands, but he never crosses the line. He's a brilliant kid and he uses that to his advantage when he is supporting his teammates. He's certainly going to be missed. I would have loved to see him on the court more over the last two years. Hopefully he'll be healthy and have a chance to finish his career successfully, but I know even if he's not on the court, he's still going to make an impact. "

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