2020 Dual Season Opens with Incarnate Word

In Brief: The Rice men's tennis team opens their 2020 dual season by hosting Incarnate Word at 11 a.m. Saturday at the George R. Brown Tennis Center. Saturday's match is the first of 22 dual (13 at home) on tap for 2020 leading up to the Conference USA Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 17-19.

Live Scoring and Video: Live video and match scoring is available for all matches at the George R. Brown Tennis Center

Incarnate Word: Rice has won all four previous meeting with the Cardinals, most recently with a 6-0 win to open the 2019 season.

George R. Brown Tennis Center: Rice has posted a 53-17 regular season record at GRBTC (6-5 vs. ranked teams) since 2015. The Owls have also posted a 3-1 postseason mark while hosting a pair of Conference USA championships, including a 3-0 mark while winning the 2016 title.

The Road Ahead: The Owls are scheduled to face three of the top 10 teams in the latest Oracle/ITA National Top 25 @(#1 Texas on 2/9; #8 TCU at GRBTC on 3/11 and @#9 Texas A&M on 2/21). The schedule features seven other teams who were ranked in the final 2019 collegiate rankings, including home matches with LSU (#48) and Middle Tennessee (#68) and also will see the Owls take on six Conference USA schools (Charlotte, FAU, MTSU, Southern Miss, UAB and UTSA) in the regular season for the first time since Rice joined the conference in 2005.

The Squad: Rice returns nine lettermen who accounted for 97% of it singles wins from the 2019 dual season and all of its wins in doubles. Junior Sumit Sarkar returns after being named the Conference USA Men's Tennis Player of the Year and 2019 and becoming the first Owl to qualify for the NCAA Men's Singles Championship since 2010. He was 17-5 while playing at the first singles position, the most wins by an Owl at that position since 1994. Sarkar was a first-team, all-conference selection last year along with Eric Rutledge (the lone senior on the 2020 squad) and Conrad Russell, while Jacob Eskeland was named to the second team.

Efe Ustundag on UIW: "They won the Southland title two years ago and they had several players make strong runs in the fall at the Texas ITA Regional. Wes Barnett had a crazy match with one of their better players (Dennis Boisseau) last fall at the Rice Invitational where he was down 5-1 in the third and cramping, but then their player started cramping and Wes came back to win. Early in the year, anything can happen. Louisville upset Virginia and Abilene Christian played a 4-3 match against Texas Tech that came down to the final court. We've got to play with confidence and get past the excitement of getting the season started. We've had our share of rough starts and the guys on this team saw that two years ago what can happen if you don't properly prepare for an opening opponent."

On the team: "This is probably one of our deepest team in a while. We had a lot of success last year at the top of the lineup, but I this year we have the depth to challenge every team on our schedule. We will be competing for every point. Unfortunately, we spent a lot of the fall nursing some injuries and that impacted our results and the number of matches we were able to play, but we are healthy now and are ready to get started. With one senior and four juniors, we have great leadership on this team and I 'm excited for them to lead the way. Sumit's on-court presence and his results are definitely a plus for this team, but we've got a guy like Eric whose been in a college system for five years (redshirt season at Wake Forest before coming to Rice). He's been around long enough to know what it takes. He's won at Rice and been part of a winning program at Wake. He's ready to go out on a high note. The emergence of Jacob last year not only as a strong top of the lineup player but as a leader was great to see. Conrad and Mo (Mohamed Abdel Aziz) have come a long way from their freshman seasons in terms of what they bring to the court each day. Everyone is going to play a big part. Those that are not in the lineup will have a major part to play as we move forward.

On the schedule: "You can't determine what the schedule looks like by the January rankings (before computerized rankings begin after indoor team nationals in early February). The rankings are going to see some dramatic changes once teams start playing. Harvard is probably going to be a top 25 team. LSU added some quality new players and they are going to make a big jump up. We always play a tough schedule. Because of the respect our program has as well as our location, we are able to attract great teams to come play us. We don't have to chase good matches. The schedule is balanced with challenges against teams in the top 10, the top 25 and the top 50 and we're going to find out where we fit in the mix. This is certainly a schedule that can help us reach out goals and get back where we belong in the rankings. We need to be a good team on the road, especially early on in the year. The fact we are playing six conference opponents speaks to the quality of teams in C-USA. There is much more depth than in past years. We're certainly going to know our opponents when we get to the conference tournament. We're seeing the strength of the conference other than ODU. It's going to give us a great idea of where we stand and hopefully that will pay off in the end."

Next Up: Rice travels east to face a pair of Ivy League schools who finished 2019 in the national top 50. The Owls will face Dartmouth, which finished last season ranked 40^th and captured the Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational last year on Friday (January 31) and wrap the weekend by facing Harvard, which ended last year ranked 40^th, on Sunday (February 2).

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