Saturday, January 14
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
12:30 PM
Rice University
vs
USF
2023 Campaign Opens with Three on the Road
1/13/2023 3:01:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Owls face USF, FAU and UCSB on holiday weekend
In Brief: Coming off one of its most extensive fall campaigns in recent years, Rice opens its 2023 dual season this weekend with three matches against teams who were ranked at the end of the 2022 season at the FAU Invitational in Boca Raton, Florida.
The Schedule: Saturday: USF 12:30 pm / Sunday: FAU 1 pm / Monday: UCSB 9 am
Live Stats: Live updates will be available for the FAU match.
The Owls: Rice finished the 2022 season with a 12-13 record, falling to #47 Charlotte 4-3 in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Championship. They combined for an overall singles record of 39-21 in fall action, their heaviest fall workload since they combined for 73 singles matches in 2018, and their most combined wins since they finished the fall of 2015 40-22. Trinity Grear (7-3) and Emir Sendogan (7-4) lead the team in wins followed by Kentucky transfer Yasha Zemel who was 6-1 in his debut with the Owls. Sophomore Haoyuan Huang was the C-USA Freshman of the Year last year after finishing 17-5 in singles during the spring season.
The Opposition: USF was 14-11 and was ranked 45th in the final ITA ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings sponsored by Tennis-Point. FAU was 18-6 last year and ranked 49th. UCSB finished the 2022 season 17-6 and ranked 56th. USF leads the series with Rice 3-2 thanks to a 4-1 win last year. FAU has a 3-1 lead in the series with Rice, but Rice won the most recent meeting in Boca Raton, 4-2 in 2009. This will be the first meeting between UCSB and Rice since the Owls took a 4-3 decision in 1993.
Road Tests Early: The three matches this weekend are the first of five consecutive road matches for the Owls, who will take on Denver and Air Force next weekend before opening their home schedule on January 27 by hosting Elon at 1 p.m.
Efe Ustundag:
On the development of the team: "Ever since we got together in August, this has been a really solid group that has been training and improving. We have some newcomers, and we're looking for them to make an immediate impact. You never know until the freshmen get to campus what kind of impact they will have, but it's going to be exciting to watch Kabeer Kapasi and Santiago Navarro continue to grow this spring. Yasha brings in a ton of experience and leadership qualities. We knew he was going to be a player and he certainly proved that over the last semester. We've got three seniors on the team (Wes Barnett, Dylan Heap, Campbell Salmon) and how they keep this team glued together is going to be very important. With the development of Trinity and Emir, we feel that we can have the depth to put six guys on the court and play quality tennis every match."
On the start of the season: "This weekend we face one team that is a current conference rival (FAU), another who will become one next season when we move to The American (USF) and a third (UCSB) who were the top seed in their conference last year, so we are excited about getting tested. We're going to get three outdoor matches this weekend and then a couple indoors next weekend. I trust this team and their ability to adapt and make adjustments. We're playing very good teams on the road in tough situations and that will only make us tougher later in the year when we host conference at the end of April. "
The Schedule: Saturday: USF 12:30 pm / Sunday: FAU 1 pm / Monday: UCSB 9 am
Live Stats: Live updates will be available for the FAU match.
The Owls: Rice finished the 2022 season with a 12-13 record, falling to #47 Charlotte 4-3 in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Championship. They combined for an overall singles record of 39-21 in fall action, their heaviest fall workload since they combined for 73 singles matches in 2018, and their most combined wins since they finished the fall of 2015 40-22. Trinity Grear (7-3) and Emir Sendogan (7-4) lead the team in wins followed by Kentucky transfer Yasha Zemel who was 6-1 in his debut with the Owls. Sophomore Haoyuan Huang was the C-USA Freshman of the Year last year after finishing 17-5 in singles during the spring season.
The Opposition: USF was 14-11 and was ranked 45th in the final ITA ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings sponsored by Tennis-Point. FAU was 18-6 last year and ranked 49th. UCSB finished the 2022 season 17-6 and ranked 56th. USF leads the series with Rice 3-2 thanks to a 4-1 win last year. FAU has a 3-1 lead in the series with Rice, but Rice won the most recent meeting in Boca Raton, 4-2 in 2009. This will be the first meeting between UCSB and Rice since the Owls took a 4-3 decision in 1993.
Road Tests Early: The three matches this weekend are the first of five consecutive road matches for the Owls, who will take on Denver and Air Force next weekend before opening their home schedule on January 27 by hosting Elon at 1 p.m.
Efe Ustundag:
On the development of the team: "Ever since we got together in August, this has been a really solid group that has been training and improving. We have some newcomers, and we're looking for them to make an immediate impact. You never know until the freshmen get to campus what kind of impact they will have, but it's going to be exciting to watch Kabeer Kapasi and Santiago Navarro continue to grow this spring. Yasha brings in a ton of experience and leadership qualities. We knew he was going to be a player and he certainly proved that over the last semester. We've got three seniors on the team (Wes Barnett, Dylan Heap, Campbell Salmon) and how they keep this team glued together is going to be very important. With the development of Trinity and Emir, we feel that we can have the depth to put six guys on the court and play quality tennis every match."
On the start of the season: "This weekend we face one team that is a current conference rival (FAU), another who will become one next season when we move to The American (USF) and a third (UCSB) who were the top seed in their conference last year, so we are excited about getting tested. We're going to get three outdoor matches this weekend and then a couple indoors next weekend. I trust this team and their ability to adapt and make adjustments. We're playing very good teams on the road in tough situations and that will only make us tougher later in the year when we host conference at the end of April. "
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
WBB: Rice vs. Marshall Postgame Presser
Wednesday, March 09
VB: Rice-Texas Postgame Presser
Saturday, December 04
VB: Rice-San Diego Postgame Presser
Thursday, December 02