Sunday, March 8
Austin, TX
3:30 PM
Rice University
1
at
6
#3 Texas
Texas Rebounds to Down Rice
3/8/2020 7:42:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Owls win doubles point for the first time since 2006
Austin: The Rice men's tennis team saw a promising start against defending national champion Texas stymied by the Longhorns, who bounced back from a rare loss in doubles to the Owls to post a 6-1 win at the Texas Tennis Center on Sunday.
Doubles: The Owls took the court on Sunday winless in their last 16 doubles points against the Longhorns, who were anchored by ninth-ranked Christian Sigsgaard and Yuya Ito at the first line. Texas quickly moved to within a win of extending the streak to 17 matches with a 6-1 win at the second line, but Sumit Sarkar and Conrad Russell won a pair of crucial early deuce points to jump out to a 4-1 lead and held on to their lead throughout the match to down Sigsgaard and Ito 6-3. Meanwhile at the third line, Eric Rutledge and Wes Barnett won three of the last four games to clinch the point with a 6-3 win. The doubles win over Texas was the first for the Owls since 2006 when the 31st ranked Owls used the momentum of that win to race to a 5-2 win over No. 3 Texas on Senior Day.
Singles: The Owls saw their hopes for an upset quelled in the first sets of singles as the Longhorns weathered early charges to take five of six first sets before closing out with wins on all six courts to win for the 15th consecutive time against the Owls.
Efe Ustundag: "It was a great start in doubles. Right at the start, we had to serve out of a pair of deuce points at one, but good serving was on our side. When we had an opportunity, we took advantage of it. It's usually pretty tough to be up just one break early and not get broken for the entire match, but that's exactly what they did. We probably saved a deuce point in all of our service games, but hats off to Sumit and Conrad for playing clutch in big moments. When you take out a doubles team like that, it shows you the level we can play at, we just need to be more consistent. That was probably the most aggressive match we've played in quite a while at three in terms of going after our shots and returns and it paid dividends. In singles, we really were competitive early on five of six courts. Eric (Rutledge) had three set points in his first set, Campbell (Salmon) was up a break early, Karol (Paluch) had an unbelievable start (winning first set 6-1), Sumit was hanging in their (facing Ito, who is ranked second in singles) trading breaks and staying on serve. It was exactly what you'd want to see after winning a doubles point against a top ten team. You know they're going to come out tough and not go away. It was nice to see that we were strong early on, but the score evened out too quickly with their win at six. Having competed this well against one of the best teams in the country, I hope we can take this experience into our matches. The shots are there, the physicality is there, it's about who stays tougher when the challenges come."
Up Next: The Owls (4-7) return to GRBTC on March 11 when they host 8th ranked TCU at noon before opening Conference USA play on Friday, March 13 when they host 39th ranked and defending C-USA champion Middle Tennessee at 5 p.m.
Tennis Match Results
Rice vs Texas
3/8/2020 at Austin, Texas
(Texas Tennis Center)
#3 Texas 6, Rice 1
Singles competition
1. #2 Yuya Ito (UT) def. Sumit Sarkar 6-3, 6-4
2. #6 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. Jacob Eskeland 6-3, 6-1
3. Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. Campbell Salmon 6-3, 6-0
4. #44 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Karol Paluch 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
5. Chih Chi Huang (UT) def. Eric Rutledge 7-6 (7-3), 6-3
6. Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Conrad Russell 6-1, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Sumit Sarkar/Conrad Russell def. #9 Christian Sigsgaard/Yuya Ito (UT) 6-3
2. Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Campbell Salmon/Karol Paluch 6-1
3. Eric Rutledge/Wes Barnett def. Chih Chi Huang/Cleeve Harper (UT) 6-3
Match Notes:
Rice 4-7
Texas 12-3; National ranking #3
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (6,3,2,1,4,5)
Doubles: The Owls took the court on Sunday winless in their last 16 doubles points against the Longhorns, who were anchored by ninth-ranked Christian Sigsgaard and Yuya Ito at the first line. Texas quickly moved to within a win of extending the streak to 17 matches with a 6-1 win at the second line, but Sumit Sarkar and Conrad Russell won a pair of crucial early deuce points to jump out to a 4-1 lead and held on to their lead throughout the match to down Sigsgaard and Ito 6-3. Meanwhile at the third line, Eric Rutledge and Wes Barnett won three of the last four games to clinch the point with a 6-3 win. The doubles win over Texas was the first for the Owls since 2006 when the 31st ranked Owls used the momentum of that win to race to a 5-2 win over No. 3 Texas on Senior Day.
Singles: The Owls saw their hopes for an upset quelled in the first sets of singles as the Longhorns weathered early charges to take five of six first sets before closing out with wins on all six courts to win for the 15th consecutive time against the Owls.
Efe Ustundag: "It was a great start in doubles. Right at the start, we had to serve out of a pair of deuce points at one, but good serving was on our side. When we had an opportunity, we took advantage of it. It's usually pretty tough to be up just one break early and not get broken for the entire match, but that's exactly what they did. We probably saved a deuce point in all of our service games, but hats off to Sumit and Conrad for playing clutch in big moments. When you take out a doubles team like that, it shows you the level we can play at, we just need to be more consistent. That was probably the most aggressive match we've played in quite a while at three in terms of going after our shots and returns and it paid dividends. In singles, we really were competitive early on five of six courts. Eric (Rutledge) had three set points in his first set, Campbell (Salmon) was up a break early, Karol (Paluch) had an unbelievable start (winning first set 6-1), Sumit was hanging in their (facing Ito, who is ranked second in singles) trading breaks and staying on serve. It was exactly what you'd want to see after winning a doubles point against a top ten team. You know they're going to come out tough and not go away. It was nice to see that we were strong early on, but the score evened out too quickly with their win at six. Having competed this well against one of the best teams in the country, I hope we can take this experience into our matches. The shots are there, the physicality is there, it's about who stays tougher when the challenges come."
Up Next: The Owls (4-7) return to GRBTC on March 11 when they host 8th ranked TCU at noon before opening Conference USA play on Friday, March 13 when they host 39th ranked and defending C-USA champion Middle Tennessee at 5 p.m.
Tennis Match Results
Rice vs Texas
3/8/2020 at Austin, Texas
(Texas Tennis Center)
#3 Texas 6, Rice 1
Singles competition
1. #2 Yuya Ito (UT) def. Sumit Sarkar 6-3, 6-4
2. #6 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. Jacob Eskeland 6-3, 6-1
3. Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. Campbell Salmon 6-3, 6-0
4. #44 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Karol Paluch 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
5. Chih Chi Huang (UT) def. Eric Rutledge 7-6 (7-3), 6-3
6. Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Conrad Russell 6-1, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Sumit Sarkar/Conrad Russell def. #9 Christian Sigsgaard/Yuya Ito (UT) 6-3
2. Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Campbell Salmon/Karol Paluch 6-1
3. Eric Rutledge/Wes Barnett def. Chih Chi Huang/Cleeve Harper (UT) 6-3
Match Notes:
Rice 4-7
Texas 12-3; National ranking #3
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (6,3,2,1,4,5)
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1,3
#1 Singles Match
12
34
Yuya Ito / 0 (2/-) [UT]
66
#2 Singles Match
12
31
Christian Sigsgaard / 0 (6/-) [UT]
66
#3 Singles Match
12
30
Eliot Spizzirri / 0 [UT]
66
#4 Singles Match
123
643
Siem Woldeab / 0 (44/-) [UT]
166
#5 Singles Match
12
63
Chih Chi Huang / 0 [UT]
76
#6 Singles Match
12
11
Cleeve Harper / 0 [UT]
66
Order of Finish:
6,3,2,1,4,5
Players Mentioned
/ 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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