In Brief: The Rice men's tennis team will welcome a familiar foe on Sunday in a match that will celebrate the life of former Owl All-American Jack Turpin as the Owls host SMU at 11 a.m. as part of a second combined dual with the Rice women's team. "Throwback Sunday" will see the Rice women also take on a longtime rival from the days of the Southwest Conference in19th ranked Baylor at the same time. The men will follow their match with SMU by taking on Prairie View at 3:30 p.m.
SMU: The Mustangs (10-5) and Owls (3-5) have met throughout their combined men's tennis history, both in tournament action and in the dual match format. The schools
Jack Turpin
have battled to a near-draw over the last 43 matches, with the Mustangs holding a 22-21 lead. SMU's five losses this year have been to ranked teams (Texas, Old Dominion, LSU, Tulane and TCU). Rice won the most recent meeting, taking a 6-1 win last year in Dallas. They are 1-1 in matches at GRBTC, with SMU winning the last meeting here, 5-2 in 2018.
Turpin Cup: Rice and SMU announced on Wednesday the creation of a traveling trophy, the Turpin Cup, to honor the memory of Jack Turpin, who passed away in December. Turpin earned All-America honors and won a Southwest Conference doubles title in 1950 for Rice. His oldest son, Scott, followed his father to play tennis at Rice where he served as a co-captain as a senior while his younger two sons, Mark and Jeff, earned All-American honors playing for SMU. The traveling trophy will be presented to the winning team for the first time at the conclusion of Sunday's match.
Prairie View: The Panthers (1-16) picked up their first win of the season last Sunday, downing Mississippi Valley State on the final day of the SWAC Pod 1 at Jackson State University. This is the 13th consecutive year the Owls and Panthers have met, with Rice winning each of the previous 12.
Owls Notables:
Rice is 3-2 at home in 2020.
Rice is 3-5 so far this year in the doubles point (3-0 when winning the point).
The Owls are 1-7 so far in singles tiebreakers, 2-2 in supersets; 2-0 in doubles tiebreaks.
George R. Brown Tennis Center: Rice has posted a 55-19 regular season record at GRBTC (6-6 vs. ranked teams) since opening for the 2015 dual season. 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 Schedule Ahead: The Owls remaining schedule features seven teams currently in the Oracle/ITA national rankings: (@#4 and defending NCAA Champion Texas, 3/8; #12 TCU, 3/11; #31 Middle Tennessee State, 3/13; @#20 Miami, 3/17; #50 VCA, 3/27; #43 Denver, 3/29 and #44Tulane, 4/12 ). The Owls also 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.
Next Up: The Owls travel to Austin next Sunday to take on defending national champion Texas at 3:30 p.m. They return home to host #12 TCU at noon on Wednesday, March 11.
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