Saturday, January 29
Houston, Texas
3 PM
Rice University
7
vs
0
Trinity
Owls Finish Fast in Sweep of Doubleheader
1/29/2022 6:27:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Shutout UTRGV and Trinity
In Brief: Rice turned a pair of tight battles for doubles points into the springboard for shutout wins as the Owls defeated UTRGV and Trinity by identical 7-0 scores at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Saturday. The Owls improved to 4-1 on the season.
UTRGV: The Owls had to rally on all three courts to stave off a strong bid by the Vaqueros to take the early lead. Sumit Sarkar and Haoyuan Huang fought back from a 5-3 deficit to finish first with a 7-5 win while both remaining courts were knotted at 5-5. Wes Barnett and Trinity Grear put an end to the threat by winning the final two games to clinch the point. In singles, the Owls took five of the matches in straight sets while Huang had to fight his way to a superset win at the first line to give Rice the sweep.
UTRGV Box Score
Trinity: Wes Barnett and Trinity Grear swept to a 6-1 win at the second line, but the final two doubles matches were extended to tiebreakers before Adam Oscislawski and Sumit Sarkar emerged with a 7-5 tiebreak win to nail down the first point. In much the same manner as the first match of the day, the Owls raced through the singles portion in nearly the same amount of time as the doubles, sweeping all six matches in straight sets.
Notable: Grear and Emir Sendogan each improved to 5-0 this season in singles while Huang and Salmon won their fourth straight.
Efe Ustundag: "Credit to both UTRGV and Trinity for coming out prepared to play some great doubles. They played very strategically with great movement and at times I thought they definitely looked better than we did. That's something throughout the year we will have to look to get better and better at. We have a group of guys who can play good tennis, but we have to learn to play better doubles. This is a tough group to take four singles matches from once we get rolling. I was very happy with how we took care of business in singles. We were clutch and won a lot of big points and hopefully, that gives them the confidence to handle the big moments to come. The confidence to reach back and tell themselves they can be clutch."
Next Up: Rice concludes the season-opening, six-match homestand on February 6 when they host Louisiana at noon at GRBTC.
UTRGV: The Owls had to rally on all three courts to stave off a strong bid by the Vaqueros to take the early lead. Sumit Sarkar and Haoyuan Huang fought back from a 5-3 deficit to finish first with a 7-5 win while both remaining courts were knotted at 5-5. Wes Barnett and Trinity Grear put an end to the threat by winning the final two games to clinch the point. In singles, the Owls took five of the matches in straight sets while Huang had to fight his way to a superset win at the first line to give Rice the sweep.
UTRGV Box Score
Trinity: Wes Barnett and Trinity Grear swept to a 6-1 win at the second line, but the final two doubles matches were extended to tiebreakers before Adam Oscislawski and Sumit Sarkar emerged with a 7-5 tiebreak win to nail down the first point. In much the same manner as the first match of the day, the Owls raced through the singles portion in nearly the same amount of time as the doubles, sweeping all six matches in straight sets.
Notable: Grear and Emir Sendogan each improved to 5-0 this season in singles while Huang and Salmon won their fourth straight.
Efe Ustundag: "Credit to both UTRGV and Trinity for coming out prepared to play some great doubles. They played very strategically with great movement and at times I thought they definitely looked better than we did. That's something throughout the year we will have to look to get better and better at. We have a group of guys who can play good tennis, but we have to learn to play better doubles. This is a tough group to take four singles matches from once we get rolling. I was very happy with how we took care of business in singles. We were clutch and won a lot of big points and hopefully, that gives them the confidence to handle the big moments to come. The confidence to reach back and tell themselves they can be clutch."
Next Up: Rice concludes the season-opening, six-match homestand on February 6 when they host Louisiana at noon at GRBTC.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2
#1 Singles Match
12
Cameron Krimbill / 0 [TU]
13
66
#2 Singles Match
12
Hao Nguyen / 0 [TU]
41
66
#3 Singles Match
12
Christian Settles / 0 [TU]
40
66
#4 Singles Match
12
Wilson Hamilton / 0 [TU]
13
66
#5 Singles Match
12
Connor Whittington / 0 [TU]
30
66
#6 Singles Match
12
Cal Hunter / 0 [TU]
11
66
Order of Finish:
5,3,1,6,4,2
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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