Saturday, April 20
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
11 am
Rice University
1
vs
4
Florida Atlantic University
Rally Falls Short in C-USA Semis
4/20/2019 5:47:00 PM | Men's Tennis
FAU 4, Rice 1
The Lead: The Rice men's tennis team saw their hopes of reaching a 10th Conference USA championship match fall short as Florida Atlantic fought off a furious rally to earn a repeat berth in the finals with a 4-1 win at the Adams Tennis Complex in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on Saturday. Rice ends its season at 14-13.
Doubles: The two teams served early notice that the battle for a berth in the finals would be a long one, taking nearly an hour to decide the doubles point. Only four games separated the teams on the three combined courts, but FAU took the early lead with wins at the first two lines while the battle at the third line was tied 9-9 in a tiebreaker.
Singles: Rice shook off the initial disappointment of the doubles loss by sprinting to first set wins in four of six singles matches, but FAU locked down a 3-0 lead by closing out its two first set wins. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz put the Owls on the scoreboard with a win at the third line, but Rice saw second set leads on two of the three courts evaporate and all three remaining matches moved to third sets, setting the stage for FAU's clinching win at the second line.
Efe Ustundag: "Obviously the doubles point was big and we talked about it quite a bit yesterday. It was going to be the most important point of the match. But we lose the doubles point and then win four first sets. We've been on the receiving end of that situation several times this year, but the credit goes to Florida Atlantic for fighting back. Outside of Mo, they didn't allow anyone else to get on the board. Jacob was the closest in his second set. He was up 4-1 and was two points from a second break and serving for his match, but two good serves saved those break points for Florida Atlantic. Jacob put up a good fight in the third. When that match was clinched, Sumit was up 30-15 at 5-4 in the third and Eric was up a break and serving at 4-2. Florida Atlantic fought us at every point. They were better at two spots than we were and they got those points up quickly on the board and its 3-0 before Mo gets on the board. As I said, we've been on the other side of that and kept people from getting on the board while extending our lead. But it wasn't our day today.
Doubles: The two teams served early notice that the battle for a berth in the finals would be a long one, taking nearly an hour to decide the doubles point. Only four games separated the teams on the three combined courts, but FAU took the early lead with wins at the first two lines while the battle at the third line was tied 9-9 in a tiebreaker.
Singles: Rice shook off the initial disappointment of the doubles loss by sprinting to first set wins in four of six singles matches, but FAU locked down a 3-0 lead by closing out its two first set wins. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz put the Owls on the scoreboard with a win at the third line, but Rice saw second set leads on two of the three courts evaporate and all three remaining matches moved to third sets, setting the stage for FAU's clinching win at the second line.
Efe Ustundag: "Obviously the doubles point was big and we talked about it quite a bit yesterday. It was going to be the most important point of the match. But we lose the doubles point and then win four first sets. We've been on the receiving end of that situation several times this year, but the credit goes to Florida Atlantic for fighting back. Outside of Mo, they didn't allow anyone else to get on the board. Jacob was the closest in his second set. He was up 4-1 and was two points from a second break and serving for his match, but two good serves saved those break points for Florida Atlantic. Jacob put up a good fight in the third. When that match was clinched, Sumit was up 30-15 at 5-4 in the third and Eric was up a break and serving at 4-2. Florida Atlantic fought us at every point. They were better at two spots than we were and they got those points up quickly on the board and its 3-0 before Mo gets on the board. As I said, we've been on the other side of that and kept people from getting on the board while extending our lead. But it wasn't our day today.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2
#1 Singles Match
1234
7450
Jason Legall / 0 [FAU]
664UF
#2 Singles Match
123
644
Kirac Bekisoglu / 0 [FAU]
466
#3 Singles Match
1234
654UF
Mehdi Laalej / 0 [FAU]
272UF
#4 Singles Match
12
30
Gabriel Sidney / 0 [FAU]
66
#5 Singles Match
12
66
Ignacio Garcia / 0 [FAU]
43
#6 Singles Match
12
23
A. Fernandez Horta / 0 [FAU]
66
Order of Finish:
6,4,5,2
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
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