Rematch with Charlotte Opens C-USA Championship for Owls

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Houston: The Rice men's tennis team (12-12) opens play in the 2022 Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship on Friday when the sixth-seeded Owls take on #3 seed Charlotte in quarterfinal action. First serves are set for 9 a.m. (central) at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center in Norfolk, Virginia.

The Schedule: The winner of the Rice-Charlotte match will advance to face the winner of the match between #2 FAU and #7 Southern Miss in Saturday's semifinals at 11 a.m. with Saturday's winner advancing to the championship match on Sunday at 10 a.m. for the C-USA title.

In the Championship: Rice is 24-12 at the C-USA tournament, including a 2-0 mark against Charlotte (2019 and 2015 at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center. The Owls have won three championships since its first appearance in 2006 (2010, 2016-17). The Owls have appeared in nine championship matches, the most of any current C-USA school. The Owls' total ties Tulsa (2006-2014) for the most in the history of the event.

C-USA This Year: Rice was 1-3 this year against Conference USA opponents this season, losing to top-seed Middle Tennessee 5-2, second seed Old Dominion 4-0, third seed and quarterfinal opponent Charlotte 4-1, and defeating fifth-seeded UTSA 4-2.

Seedings: The top seed has reached the championship match in each of the last 18 C-USA tournaments (11-7), but has lost the last two of the last three and three of the last six. Third-seeded USF defeated No. 2 Tulane in 2002 in the last title match without the top seed. Prior to 2003 when Tulane defeated TCU, the top seed had never won the title (0-4). Two-time defending champion Middle Tennessee became the third #3 seed to win the conference title when they defeated top-seeded FAU in 2019 and then won as the top seed last year. No team seeded lower than third has ever won the C-USA Men's Tennis title.

First Timers: Three of the last six C-USA champions have been first-time winners (Middle Tennessee 2019, ODU 2018, UTSA 2015).

Efe Ustundag: "We were glad to be able to re-schedule a match on Monday for Senior Day, but Charlotte played at Oklahoma State on Monday, so there really was no disadvantage to having one less day of practice. The win at UTSA (on April 9) was big for us because it was a win on the road against a team that beat us twice last year. We drop five first sets (in singles) but come back and look physically sharp. You have to take a lot of confidence out of that. We've played a lot of teams in the conference and played them very tight. We had a battle indoors with Charlotte a month ago. This is the deepest and strongest C-USA has ever been. We could have as many as three teams in a position to get at-large bids."

Career records vs. C-USA and at the C-USA Championship (singles/doubles):
Wes Barnett (2-4/3-3 overall; 0-0/0-1 C-USA Championship)
Trinity Grear   (1-6/3-3 overall; 0-0/0-0 C-USA Championship)
Haoyuan Huang (2-1/1-2 overall; 0-0/0-0 C-USA Championship)
Eduardo Morais (0-0/1-0 overall; 0-0/0-0 C-USA Championship)
Adam Oscislawski (2-2/0-1 overall; 0-2/0-0 C-USA Championship)
Karol Paluch (0-0/0-1 overall; 0-0/0-0 C-USA Championship)
Campbell Salmon   (2-9/3-2 overall; 0-1/0-1 C-USA Championship)
Sumit Sarkar    (9-5/9-5 overall; 1-0/1-1 C-USA Championship)
Emir Sendogan (2-2/0-0 overall; 0-0/0-0 C-USA Championship)
AJ Valenty (0-0/0-4 overall; 0-0/0-1 C-USA Championship)

Notable:

Rice is 9-3 when clinching the doubles point, 3-9 when dropping the first point of the match.
Freshman Haoyuan Huang (16-5) leads the Owls in singles and has won his last 12 of his last 14 decisions. He is 12-3 while playing at the first line. Fellow freshman Emir Sendogan is 12-8 this year while Sophomore Trinity Grear is 14-9.

Clinch Points: Trinity Grear (5). Campbell Salmon & Haoyuan Huang (2), Eduardo Morais and Karol Paluch & Adam Oscislawski (1)

Follow the Action:
For the most up-to-date information on Rice Tennis follow the Owls on Twitter @RiceTennis or Instagram @ricemtennis or like Rice Men's Tennis on Facebook.

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