Friday, March 25
Houston, Texas
Noon
Rice University
4
vs
3
New Mexico
Back from the Brink
3/25/2022 5:09:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Oscislawski rallies to lead Rice over new Mexico
In Brief: Less than an hour after he was two points away from defeat, Adam Oscislawski had the match on his racquet in a 3-3 match and delivered the clinching point to give Rice a 4-3 win over New Mexico in the opening match of the 63rd Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational on Friday.
Doubles: The Lobos raced to the early advantage with a quick win at the third line and then broke in the ninth game at the second line to gain the advantage and take the doubles point with a 6-4 win.
Singles: With two wins after dropping the doubles point this season, the Owls knew well what was required to win the match and immediately set to work. They jumped out to strong early leads at the first three lines as well as at the sixth position. Sumit Sarkar dropped only three games to take a 6-2, 6-1 win at the second line to even the score at 1-1. Emir Sendogan rebounded from a slow start in his second set to win 6-2, 6-4. After a Lobo win at the fifth line tied the game again, Oscislawski found himself down 5-2 in second set tiebreaker after losing his first set. He ripped off five straight points to win the set and force a third. Trinity Grear fought of a late challenge to win in straight sets at six (6-2, 6-4) to put the Owls one point from the clinch, placing the outcome at the first and fourth lines. While the first line match was in a third-set tiebreaker, Oscilawski fought off a similar fate by breaking at 5-5 and then clinching his match moments after the Lobos had tied it with a win at one.
Efe Ustundag: We've seen this scenario several times this year, but really pleased by how this team rallied and fought. We gave up the doubles point a little too easily but we set the tone early at one, two three, and six. I think it was 3-0 or 3-1 on each court right off the bat. That was huge when all of those leads turned into first sets. New Mexico is well-coached and I knew they would respond in the second sets. Sumit really neutralized the loss in doubles with a great effort in his second set to get a point on the board, but suddenly we're down a break at one and three. It was a great effort by Emir to erase that 3-1 deficit in the second to go up 4-3 and go on to win. Trinity gets broken at 4-3 on a deuce point but gets the break back and then saves to break points to win and put us ahead 3-2. Adam just taking that set after being down 5-2 and not letting that third point for New Mexico go on the board, he was probably not thinking it would eventually lead to being the clincher, but he just gave himself a chance. He started strong and broke serve three times in the third set, two of them after being down 30-0. There was so much focus and intensity on the match at one, I was so happy for how he served it out, no drama. Big serves, big forehands. It was fun to watch him clinch the way he did.
Up Next: The Owls will be off tomorrow as No. 73 East Tennessee State will face New Mexico at noon at GRBTC. Rice and ETSU will wrap up the Invitational with a match at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Doubles: The Lobos raced to the early advantage with a quick win at the third line and then broke in the ninth game at the second line to gain the advantage and take the doubles point with a 6-4 win.
Singles: With two wins after dropping the doubles point this season, the Owls knew well what was required to win the match and immediately set to work. They jumped out to strong early leads at the first three lines as well as at the sixth position. Sumit Sarkar dropped only three games to take a 6-2, 6-1 win at the second line to even the score at 1-1. Emir Sendogan rebounded from a slow start in his second set to win 6-2, 6-4. After a Lobo win at the fifth line tied the game again, Oscislawski found himself down 5-2 in second set tiebreaker after losing his first set. He ripped off five straight points to win the set and force a third. Trinity Grear fought of a late challenge to win in straight sets at six (6-2, 6-4) to put the Owls one point from the clinch, placing the outcome at the first and fourth lines. While the first line match was in a third-set tiebreaker, Oscilawski fought off a similar fate by breaking at 5-5 and then clinching his match moments after the Lobos had tied it with a win at one.
Efe Ustundag: We've seen this scenario several times this year, but really pleased by how this team rallied and fought. We gave up the doubles point a little too easily but we set the tone early at one, two three, and six. I think it was 3-0 or 3-1 on each court right off the bat. That was huge when all of those leads turned into first sets. New Mexico is well-coached and I knew they would respond in the second sets. Sumit really neutralized the loss in doubles with a great effort in his second set to get a point on the board, but suddenly we're down a break at one and three. It was a great effort by Emir to erase that 3-1 deficit in the second to go up 4-3 and go on to win. Trinity gets broken at 4-3 on a deuce point but gets the break back and then saves to break points to win and put us ahead 3-2. Adam just taking that set after being down 5-2 and not letting that third point for New Mexico go on the board, he was probably not thinking it would eventually lead to being the clincher, but he just gave himself a chance. He started strong and broke serve three times in the third set, two of them after being down 30-0. There was so much focus and intensity on the match at one, I was so happy for how he served it out, no drama. Big serves, big forehands. It was fun to watch him clinch the way he did.
Up Next: The Owls will be off tomorrow as No. 73 East Tennessee State will face New Mexico at noon at GRBTC. Rice and ETSU will wrap up the Invitational with a match at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,2
#1 Singles Match
123
AZKARA, Arda / 0 [NM]
367
606
#2 Singles Match
12
ABDULSALAM, Rafael / 0 [NM]
21
66
#3 Singles Match
12
NOROOZIAN, Aram / 0 [NM]
24
66
#4 Singles Match
123
KAKHNIUK, Daniil / 0 [NM]
665
377
#5 Singles Match
12
PUCALKA, Jan / 0 [NM]
66
43
#6 Singles Match
12
SAMAHA, Georgio / 0 [NM]
24
66
Order of Finish:
2,3,5,6,1,4
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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