Sunday, February 23
Houston, TX
11 AM
Rice University
1
vs
4
#49 LSU
Photo by: Maria Lysaker | Rice Athletics
Slow Start Stalls Owls
2/23/2020 3:38:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Host SMU and Prairie View next Sunday
Houston: 49h ranked LSU took an early lead and held off Rice's hopes for rally to post a 4-1 win over the Owls at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Sunday.
Doubles: The Tigers stormed out to early leads on two of three courts and while the Owls fought back in both matches, the deficit was too much to overcome and LSU took the point with 6-4 wins at the second and third lines.
Singles: LSU kept up the pressure by taking five first sets and appeared to be headed for a sweep before Sumit Sarkar roared back at the first line from a 5-2 deficit to force a tiebreaker and then fought off four set points to win the tiebreaker in the first set. He carried that momentum over into the second set to win 7-6, 6-0 and cut the margin to 3-1. While Mohamed Abdel-Aziz had forced a third set on court four and Conrad Russell was a point away from a 6-5 lead in his second set on court five, LSU wrapped things up with a win at six.
Efe Ustundag: "I think the fans who came out today watched a good college tennis match. The slow start in doubles is what killed us. We didn't start fast in singles either, but the difference is in doubles you don't have time to right the ship. There aren't enough games to overcome going down 4-1 and 3-0 on two of the courts. We were always playing from behind, but our guys did a good job of coming back. We had a chance to get back on serve at 4-3 on court three. We won two games in a row at two to make it 5-4, but two breaks is too difficult to overcome in a one-set scenario. So you lose the doubles point and then drop five first sets in singles and Sumit is down 5-2… it's looking like we are going to be out of here in 45 minutes. Sumit comes back and saves four set points in the tiebreaker. Mo (Abdel-Aziz) had a couple opportunities in his second set and finally broke. He played a really strong, physical match and was up a break in the third when we ended. The freshman from LSU at two (Ronald Hohmann) played a really good match and Karol (Paluch) tried to hang in as best as he could. We had small openings at 4-4 in the second set at four and up 4-3 in the second at six. We had too many opportunities where the other guy either served himself out of trouble or played good tennis. Conrad was very solid and was about to go up 6-5 in the second set. If we could have extended either the match at four of six to the third, it could have been a pretty interesting finish."
Up Next: The Owls (3-5) return to GRBTC on Sunday to host SMU at 11 a.m. (as part of a combined match with the Rice women who will host SMU) and come back to host Prairie View at 4 p.m.
Tennis Match Results
LSU vs Rice
2/23/2020 at Houston, TX
(George R. Brown Tennis Center)
#49 Tigers 4, Rice 1
Singles competition
1. Sumit Sarkar def. Malik Bhatnagar (LSU) 7-6 (8-6), 6-0
2. Ronald Hohmann (LSU) def. Karol Paluch 6-1, 6-3
3. #99 Boris Kozlov (LSU) def. Jacob Eskeland 6-2, 6-4
4. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz vs. Rafael Wagner (LSU) 4-6, 6-3, 3-1, unfinished
5. Conrad Russell vs. Tomas Descarrega (LSU) 5-7, 5-5, unfinished
6. Joey Thomas (LSU) def. Wes Barnett 6-1, 7-5
Doubles competition
1. Conrad Russell/Sumit Sarkar vs. Daniel Moreno/Joey Thomas (LSU) 5-5, unfinished
2. #59 Ronald Hohmann/Rafael Wagner (LSU) def. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz/Karol Paluch 6-4
3. Boris Kozlov/Nick Watson (LSU) def. Eric Rutledge/Adam Oscislawski 6-4
Match Notes:
LSU 8-2; National ranking #49
Rice 3-5
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3); Singles (2,3,1,6)
T-2:26 A-105
Doubles: The Tigers stormed out to early leads on two of three courts and while the Owls fought back in both matches, the deficit was too much to overcome and LSU took the point with 6-4 wins at the second and third lines.
Singles: LSU kept up the pressure by taking five first sets and appeared to be headed for a sweep before Sumit Sarkar roared back at the first line from a 5-2 deficit to force a tiebreaker and then fought off four set points to win the tiebreaker in the first set. He carried that momentum over into the second set to win 7-6, 6-0 and cut the margin to 3-1. While Mohamed Abdel-Aziz had forced a third set on court four and Conrad Russell was a point away from a 6-5 lead in his second set on court five, LSU wrapped things up with a win at six.
Efe Ustundag: "I think the fans who came out today watched a good college tennis match. The slow start in doubles is what killed us. We didn't start fast in singles either, but the difference is in doubles you don't have time to right the ship. There aren't enough games to overcome going down 4-1 and 3-0 on two of the courts. We were always playing from behind, but our guys did a good job of coming back. We had a chance to get back on serve at 4-3 on court three. We won two games in a row at two to make it 5-4, but two breaks is too difficult to overcome in a one-set scenario. So you lose the doubles point and then drop five first sets in singles and Sumit is down 5-2… it's looking like we are going to be out of here in 45 minutes. Sumit comes back and saves four set points in the tiebreaker. Mo (Abdel-Aziz) had a couple opportunities in his second set and finally broke. He played a really strong, physical match and was up a break in the third when we ended. The freshman from LSU at two (Ronald Hohmann) played a really good match and Karol (Paluch) tried to hang in as best as he could. We had small openings at 4-4 in the second set at four and up 4-3 in the second at six. We had too many opportunities where the other guy either served himself out of trouble or played good tennis. Conrad was very solid and was about to go up 6-5 in the second set. If we could have extended either the match at four of six to the third, it could have been a pretty interesting finish."
Up Next: The Owls (3-5) return to GRBTC on Sunday to host SMU at 11 a.m. (as part of a combined match with the Rice women who will host SMU) and come back to host Prairie View at 4 p.m.
Tennis Match Results
LSU vs Rice
2/23/2020 at Houston, TX
(George R. Brown Tennis Center)
#49 Tigers 4, Rice 1
Singles competition
1. Sumit Sarkar def. Malik Bhatnagar (LSU) 7-6 (8-6), 6-0
2. Ronald Hohmann (LSU) def. Karol Paluch 6-1, 6-3
3. #99 Boris Kozlov (LSU) def. Jacob Eskeland 6-2, 6-4
4. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz vs. Rafael Wagner (LSU) 4-6, 6-3, 3-1, unfinished
5. Conrad Russell vs. Tomas Descarrega (LSU) 5-7, 5-5, unfinished
6. Joey Thomas (LSU) def. Wes Barnett 6-1, 7-5
Doubles competition
1. Conrad Russell/Sumit Sarkar vs. Daniel Moreno/Joey Thomas (LSU) 5-5, unfinished
2. #59 Ronald Hohmann/Rafael Wagner (LSU) def. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz/Karol Paluch 6-4
3. Boris Kozlov/Nick Watson (LSU) def. Eric Rutledge/Adam Oscislawski 6-4
Match Notes:
LSU 8-2; National ranking #49
Rice 3-5
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3); Singles (2,3,1,6)
T-2:26 A-105
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,3
#1 Singles Match
12
Malik Bhatnagar / 0 [LSU]
60
76
#2 Singles Match
12
Ronald Hohmann / 0 [LSU]
66
13
#3 Singles Match
12
Boris Kozlov / 0 (99/-) [LSU]
66
24
#4 Singles Match
1234
Rafael Wagner / 0 [LSU]
6310
463UF
#5 Singles Match
123
Tomas Descarrega / 0 [LSU]
750
55UF
#6 Singles Match
12
Joey Thomas / 0 [LSU]
67
15
Order of Finish:
2,3,1,6
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
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