Saturday, January 25
Houston, TX
11 AM
Rice University
6
vs
1
Incarnate Word
Owls Open with 6-1 Win
1/25/2020 3:12:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Head East for a pair of road matches next weekend
In Brief: The Rice men's tennis team opened their 2020 dual season with a 6-1 win over Incarnate Word at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Saturday.
Doubles: The Owls grabbed the doubles point with wins at the first two lines and then saw Wes Barnett and Karol Paluch complete the sweep with a tiebreak win at the third line.
Singles: Rice raced out to take four of six first sets in singles and saw Paluch, Mohamed Abdel Aziz and Jacob Eskeland close out straight set wins to clinch the match. Sumit Sarkar shook off a loss in his first set to take his match 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 and Campbell Salmon close out the scoring by shaking off a second set loss to win a super set tiebreak at the second line for the win.
Efe Ustundag: "The first match of the year is always a challenge. This team (UIW) has already played a couple of matches and our team has been looking forward to the start of the season in almost a pressing manner. We had so many stops and starts to the fall because of some injuries and had no consistency. I thought we might be a little tense when we finally got back out there. The tone was set early at No. 2 doubles with Conrad and Campbell. Their energy really spread to the other courts. I didn't think we had enough energy at court one at the start, but they did just enough to stay in the set early on. I thought the energy spread to court three. Karol and Wes played some good matches in the fall and I think there's some real potential there. They were doing some good things and they were one reflex volley from being up 5-2, but they fought back for the win. I felt we had a very tight start in singles for the first half hour and I was starting to wonder how this match was going to go. But I also knew that all it would take was one break—not a service break necessarily, but something to change the flow and we'd start to roll. And that happened pretty quickly on three, four and five and then Sumit got over his slow start to roll in the next two sets. It was a shame for Wes to not get a win in his first match, but those first ones are always hard. Those two sophomores (Karol and Campbell) are going to be huge for us and along with Wes we are going to be so much better top to bottom in the lineup. Overall, I'm happy with the result. There are certain things that we'll have to do better."
UIW vs Rice
1/25/2020 at Houston, TX
(George R. Brown Tennis Center)
Rice 6, UIW 1
Singles competition
1. Sumit Sarkar def. Oliver Valentinsson (UIW) 1-6, 6-2, 6-1
2. Campbell Salmon def. Dennis Boisseau (UIW) 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-6)
3. Karol Paluch def. Omar El Kadi (UIW) 6-2, 6-3
4. Jacob Eskeland def. Marwin Kralemann (UIW) 6-3, 6-3
5. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz def. Marco Galic (UIW) 6-3, 6-1
6. Luka Stojanovic (UIW) def. Wes Barnett 6-4, 7-6 (7-0)
Doubles competition
1. Eric Rutledge/Sumit Sarkar def. Marwin Kralemann/Dennis Boisseau (UIW) 6-2
2. Conrad Russell/Campbell Salmon def. Nedim Ahmic/Oliver Valentinsson (UIW) 6-2
3. Wes Barnett/Karol Paluch def. Marco Galic/Omar El Kadi (UIW) 7-6 (7-4)
Match Notes:
UIW 1-1
Rice 1-0
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (3,5,4,1,6,2)
T-2:55 A-65
Up Next: Rice heads east to take on a pair of Ivy League schools who ended the 2019 dual season ranked in the national top 50. The Owls will face Dartmouth, which finished last season ranked 40th 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 40th, on Sunday (February 2).
Doubles: The Owls grabbed the doubles point with wins at the first two lines and then saw Wes Barnett and Karol Paluch complete the sweep with a tiebreak win at the third line.
Singles: Rice raced out to take four of six first sets in singles and saw Paluch, Mohamed Abdel Aziz and Jacob Eskeland close out straight set wins to clinch the match. Sumit Sarkar shook off a loss in his first set to take his match 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 and Campbell Salmon close out the scoring by shaking off a second set loss to win a super set tiebreak at the second line for the win.
Efe Ustundag: "The first match of the year is always a challenge. This team (UIW) has already played a couple of matches and our team has been looking forward to the start of the season in almost a pressing manner. We had so many stops and starts to the fall because of some injuries and had no consistency. I thought we might be a little tense when we finally got back out there. The tone was set early at No. 2 doubles with Conrad and Campbell. Their energy really spread to the other courts. I didn't think we had enough energy at court one at the start, but they did just enough to stay in the set early on. I thought the energy spread to court three. Karol and Wes played some good matches in the fall and I think there's some real potential there. They were doing some good things and they were one reflex volley from being up 5-2, but they fought back for the win. I felt we had a very tight start in singles for the first half hour and I was starting to wonder how this match was going to go. But I also knew that all it would take was one break—not a service break necessarily, but something to change the flow and we'd start to roll. And that happened pretty quickly on three, four and five and then Sumit got over his slow start to roll in the next two sets. It was a shame for Wes to not get a win in his first match, but those first ones are always hard. Those two sophomores (Karol and Campbell) are going to be huge for us and along with Wes we are going to be so much better top to bottom in the lineup. Overall, I'm happy with the result. There are certain things that we'll have to do better."
UIW vs Rice
1/25/2020 at Houston, TX
(George R. Brown Tennis Center)
Rice 6, UIW 1
Singles competition
1. Sumit Sarkar def. Oliver Valentinsson (UIW) 1-6, 6-2, 6-1
2. Campbell Salmon def. Dennis Boisseau (UIW) 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-6)
3. Karol Paluch def. Omar El Kadi (UIW) 6-2, 6-3
4. Jacob Eskeland def. Marwin Kralemann (UIW) 6-3, 6-3
5. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz def. Marco Galic (UIW) 6-3, 6-1
6. Luka Stojanovic (UIW) def. Wes Barnett 6-4, 7-6 (7-0)
Doubles competition
1. Eric Rutledge/Sumit Sarkar def. Marwin Kralemann/Dennis Boisseau (UIW) 6-2
2. Conrad Russell/Campbell Salmon def. Nedim Ahmic/Oliver Valentinsson (UIW) 6-2
3. Wes Barnett/Karol Paluch def. Marco Galic/Omar El Kadi (UIW) 7-6 (7-4)
Match Notes:
UIW 1-1
Rice 1-0
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (3,5,4,1,6,2)
T-2:55 A-65
Up Next: Rice heads east to take on a pair of Ivy League schools who ended the 2019 dual season ranked in the national top 50. The Owls will face Dartmouth, which finished last season ranked 40th 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 40th, on Sunday (February 2).
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2,3
#1 Singles Match
123
Oliver Valentinsson / 0 [UIW]
621
166
#2 Singles Match
123
Dennis Boisseau / 0 [UIW]
460
641
#3 Singles Match
12
Omar El Kadi / 0 [UIW]
23
66
#4 Singles Match
12
Marwin Kralemann / 0 [UIW]
33
66
#5 Singles Match
12
Marco Galic / 0 [UIW]
31
66
#6 Singles Match
12
Luka Stojanovic / 0 [UIW]
67
46
Order of Finish:
3,5,4,1,6,2
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
WBB: Rice vs. Marshall Postgame Presser
Wednesday, March 09
VB: Rice-Texas Postgame Presser
Saturday, December 04
VB: Rice-San Diego Postgame Presser
Thursday, December 02