Sunday, February 13
Houston, Texas
11 AM
Rice University
6
vs
1
Abilene Christian
Strong Singles Spark Owls
2/13/2022 3:00:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Down ACU 6-1
In Brief: Rice shook off a slow start in doubles, using a sweep in singles to register its first win after losing the doubles point in the last 23 matches, downing 6-1 over Abilene Christian at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Sunday.
Doubles: All three matches were decided by 6-4 scores, with the Wildcats winning at the second and third lines. At the first line, Dylan Heap and Sumit Sarkar were paired together for the first time and fought out of a 4-1 deficit to win five consecutive games and pick up a win.
Singles: Looking to bounce back from a loss in doubles for the first time since 2-19, the Owls seized the momentum from the Wildcats early, grabbing breaks on multiple courts and going on to take all six first sets. Adam Oscislawski, Emir Sendogan, and Haoyuan Huang maintained their pace in the second sets to give Rice a 3-1 lead in rapid succession and Trinity Grear followed shortly after with the clinching point.
Efe Ustundag: "I told the guys that even though we were moving some things around (in doubles) that shouldn't impact our ability to play tennis. It's not rocket science, but it takes commitment. Sometimes we might get a little too nervous playing doubles. Having lost two in a row, it was not the way we wanted to start, but that is definitely how you want to respond. It was pretty silent when I talked to them after doubles and even as they were warming up for singles, I could see they were very focused and business-like. This (ACU) is a gritty team who won a tough 4-3 match on Friday over UTA and has played some top-ranked teams. But when we are playing our game, we can take the fight out of someone and we did that today. I'm very proud of them and the response they showed. I felt like we walked off the court at Texas (on Friday) a much better team despite what the score said (7-0 loss). We played some good tennis and I was expecting to see it continue today and was very happy to see them get past the doubles and continue that improvement."
Notable:
Doubles: All three matches were decided by 6-4 scores, with the Wildcats winning at the second and third lines. At the first line, Dylan Heap and Sumit Sarkar were paired together for the first time and fought out of a 4-1 deficit to win five consecutive games and pick up a win.
Singles: Looking to bounce back from a loss in doubles for the first time since 2-19, the Owls seized the momentum from the Wildcats early, grabbing breaks on multiple courts and going on to take all six first sets. Adam Oscislawski, Emir Sendogan, and Haoyuan Huang maintained their pace in the second sets to give Rice a 3-1 lead in rapid succession and Trinity Grear followed shortly after with the clinching point.
Efe Ustundag: "I told the guys that even though we were moving some things around (in doubles) that shouldn't impact our ability to play tennis. It's not rocket science, but it takes commitment. Sometimes we might get a little too nervous playing doubles. Having lost two in a row, it was not the way we wanted to start, but that is definitely how you want to respond. It was pretty silent when I talked to them after doubles and even as they were warming up for singles, I could see they were very focused and business-like. This (ACU) is a gritty team who won a tough 4-3 match on Friday over UTA and has played some top-ranked teams. But when we are playing our game, we can take the fight out of someone and we did that today. I'm very proud of them and the response they showed. I felt like we walked off the court at Texas (on Friday) a much better team despite what the score said (7-0 loss). We played some good tennis and I was expecting to see it continue today and was very happy to see them get past the doubles and continue that improvement."
Notable:
- Rice improved to 7-7 all-time when playing on Super Bowl Sunday (5-0 at home).
- Rice last won a match after dropping the doubles point on 3/5/2019 vs. Louisiana.
- The Owls are 4-4 on the season in doubles (4-0 when winning the point).
- Trinity Grear improved to 7-1 in singles this spring while Campbell Salmon ran his mark to 6-1.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2,3
#1 Singles Match
123
Daniel Morozov / 0 [ACUM]
470
651
#2 Singles Match
12
Dario Kmet / 0 [ACUM]
25
67
#3 Singles Match
12
Savan Chhabra / 0 [ACUM]
33
66
#4 Singles Match
12
Cesar Barranquero / 0 [ACUM]
31
66
#5 Singles Match
12
Mihaly Deli / 0 [ACUM]
24
66
#6 Singles Match
12
Benjamin McDonald / 0 [ACUM]
61
76
Order of Finish:
4,3,2,5,6,1
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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