Sunday, January 31
Baton Rouge, LA
11 AM
Rice University
1
at
4
LSU
Tigers Storm Back to Down Owls
1/31/2021 5:54:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Tiebreaker wins turn the tide
Baton Rouge: LSU shook off a loss in doubles and leveraged four tiebreak wins to hand Rice a 4-1 loss at the LSU Tennis Complex on Sunday afternoon.
Doubles: The Owls improved to 3-1 in doubles thanks to wins at the first two lines. Jacob Eskeland and AJ Valenty gave the Owls an early advantage, streaking to a 6-1 win at the second line and improving to 3-0 as a duo. Conrad Russell and Sumit Sarkar broke a stalemate with a service break at 4-4 against the Tiger's 90th ranked duo of Rafael Wagner and Ronald Hohmann. Russell then served out the match to give the Owls the 1-0 lead.
Singles: In need of three singles wins to clinch the match, the Owls appeared to be moving into position as Sarkar took his first set against Hohmann and Jacob Eskeland and Campbell Salmon were in position to clinch their first sets. However LSU fought back to win each first set in a tiebreaker and claim five of six first sets. Wes Barnett and Mohamed Abdel Aziz each forced tiebreakers in their second sets but could not close them out. Hohmann, who was also ranked 90th in singles, fought back to down Sarkar in three sets and clinch the match.
Efe Ustundag: "We knew we were taking a big step up in the quality of competition and I was very happy with our effort today. Obviously, the doubles performance was great and we were in a position to push five of the six singles matches to three sets. But you can't lose four tiebreakers or drop five first singles sets and expect a good result. Teams at this level are not going to keep giving you openings, so you have to take them when they do."
Up Next: The Owls wrap up their Sunday doubleheader by facing New Orleans at 5 p.m. at the LSU Tennis Complex.
Doubles: The Owls improved to 3-1 in doubles thanks to wins at the first two lines. Jacob Eskeland and AJ Valenty gave the Owls an early advantage, streaking to a 6-1 win at the second line and improving to 3-0 as a duo. Conrad Russell and Sumit Sarkar broke a stalemate with a service break at 4-4 against the Tiger's 90th ranked duo of Rafael Wagner and Ronald Hohmann. Russell then served out the match to give the Owls the 1-0 lead.
Singles: In need of three singles wins to clinch the match, the Owls appeared to be moving into position as Sarkar took his first set against Hohmann and Jacob Eskeland and Campbell Salmon were in position to clinch their first sets. However LSU fought back to win each first set in a tiebreaker and claim five of six first sets. Wes Barnett and Mohamed Abdel Aziz each forced tiebreakers in their second sets but could not close them out. Hohmann, who was also ranked 90th in singles, fought back to down Sarkar in three sets and clinch the match.
Efe Ustundag: "We knew we were taking a big step up in the quality of competition and I was very happy with our effort today. Obviously, the doubles performance was great and we were in a position to push five of the six singles matches to three sets. But you can't lose four tiebreakers or drop five first singles sets and expect a good result. Teams at this level are not going to keep giving you openings, so you have to take them when they do."
Up Next: The Owls wrap up their Sunday doubleheader by facing New Orleans at 5 p.m. at the LSU Tennis Complex.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1
#1 Singles Match
123
632
Ronald Hohmann / 0 (90/-) [LSU]
466
#2 Singles Match
123
650
Rafael Wagner / 0 [LSU]
75UF
#3 Singles Match
12
26
Tom Pisane / 0 [LSU]
67
#4 Singles Match
123
610
Boris Kozlov / 0 [LSU]
75UF
#5 Singles Match
12
46
Joao Graca / 0 [LSU]
67
#6 Singles Match
12
34
Benjamin Ambrosio / 0 [LSU]
66
Order of Finish:
5,6,3,1
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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