Saturday, April 13
Houston, Texas
1:00 pm
Rice University
1
vs
6
#42 Tulane
Owls Fall on Senior Day
4/13/2019 7:49:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Tulane 6, Rice 1
The Lead: Tulane stormed out to an early advantage and never allowed Rice a chance to mount a serious rally as the 42nd ranked Green Wave posted a 6-1 win over the Owls on Senior Day.
Doubles: Tulane grabbed the early advantage with quick wins at the second and third lines.
Singles: The Green Wave maintained their advantage in singles, taking four of six first sets in singles and never gave the Owls an opportunity to rally. They clinched the match and extended the lead to 5-0 before the match was suspended after a line of thunderstorms moved through the area. Play resumed indoors at the Jewish Community Center and Sumit Sarkar fought back from match point to take a three-set win with a 7-3 tiebreak to improve to 16-5 on the season. His 16 wins are tied for third for the most at the No. 1 singles position at Rice since 1994. He joins Rice head coach Efe Ustundag (16-7 in 1998), Robert Searle (16-6 in 2006) and Bruno Rosa (16-6 in 2008). Ustundag won 17 in 1999 while Searle's 18 wins are the most by an Owl at the top spot in the lineup since 1994.
Efe Ustundag: "Not what I was hoping for. I was disappointed the way we played doubles. Tulane came out and punched us. I was hoping for a reaction and we didn't get that. I felt like that punch sent us to our corner and we didn't come up with an answer. For what we talked about accomplishing in the match and what was ahead of us, this team needed to do a little more to respond to the challenge. We gave up first sets on four, five and six. Our horses at the top were fighting and we took two sets and Rut was up a break, but we're down a point and then three quick sets. That's a tough deficit against this team. Last week, we twice went down four first sets, but it shows you how big the doubles point is. Last week, we had that first point and were able to send those second sets our way. Today that didn't happen and it gave us very little room. Tulane came out very solid in doubles and took care of business on some singles courts. When he had our opportunities to put some pressure on them, we didn't do it. Conrad and Campbell had some opportunities, but couldn't put things together to stay in the match. Sumit saved a match point in the third set and then played a fairly clean tiebreak. We've played better this year than we did today. We didn't do the things that put us in a good position to win. This is a good, deep team that I think can win their conference. We had to compete at a high level to have a shot against them, and we didn't do that."
Up Next: The Owls will travel to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to open play in the Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship on April 19. Seeds for the event will be released early next week.
Doubles: Tulane grabbed the early advantage with quick wins at the second and third lines.
Singles: The Green Wave maintained their advantage in singles, taking four of six first sets in singles and never gave the Owls an opportunity to rally. They clinched the match and extended the lead to 5-0 before the match was suspended after a line of thunderstorms moved through the area. Play resumed indoors at the Jewish Community Center and Sumit Sarkar fought back from match point to take a three-set win with a 7-3 tiebreak to improve to 16-5 on the season. His 16 wins are tied for third for the most at the No. 1 singles position at Rice since 1994. He joins Rice head coach Efe Ustundag (16-7 in 1998), Robert Searle (16-6 in 2006) and Bruno Rosa (16-6 in 2008). Ustundag won 17 in 1999 while Searle's 18 wins are the most by an Owl at the top spot in the lineup since 1994.
Efe Ustundag: "Not what I was hoping for. I was disappointed the way we played doubles. Tulane came out and punched us. I was hoping for a reaction and we didn't get that. I felt like that punch sent us to our corner and we didn't come up with an answer. For what we talked about accomplishing in the match and what was ahead of us, this team needed to do a little more to respond to the challenge. We gave up first sets on four, five and six. Our horses at the top were fighting and we took two sets and Rut was up a break, but we're down a point and then three quick sets. That's a tough deficit against this team. Last week, we twice went down four first sets, but it shows you how big the doubles point is. Last week, we had that first point and were able to send those second sets our way. Today that didn't happen and it gave us very little room. Tulane came out very solid in doubles and took care of business on some singles courts. When he had our opportunities to put some pressure on them, we didn't do it. Conrad and Campbell had some opportunities, but couldn't put things together to stay in the match. Sumit saved a match point in the third set and then played a fairly clean tiebreak. We've played better this year than we did today. We didn't do the things that put us in a good position to win. This is a good, deep team that I think can win their conference. We had to compete at a high level to have a shot against them, and we didn't do that."
Up Next: The Owls will travel to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to open play in the Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship on April 19. Seeds for the event will be released early next week.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,2
#1 Singles Match
123
Ewan Moore / 0 (68/-) [TLN]
466
617
#2 Singles Match
12
Hamish Stewart / 0 [TLN]
76
54
#3 Singles Match
123
Luis Erlenbusch / 0 (89/-) [TLN]
366
624
#4 Singles Match
12
Tyler Schick / 0 [TLN]
67
15
#5 Singles Match
12
Dane Esses / 0 [TLN]
67
26
#6 Singles Match
12
Akos Kotorman / 0 [TLN]
66
23
Order of Finish:
6,2,5,4,3,1
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
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