Friday, March 10
Houston, Texas
5 PM
Rice University
4
vs
0
Samford
Freshmen Lead Rice Past Samford
3/10/2023 10:59:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Owls look to capture Invite title on Sunday
George R. Brown Tennis Center: Santiago Navarro led a Rice rebound from a sluggish opening set of singles to deliver his third clinch point in the last four matches and give Rice a 4-0 win over Samford in the opening match of the 64th Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational on Friday night.
Doubles: Rice jumped to the early advantage by taking the first point of the night with 6-2 wins at the first two lines.
Singles: Samford responded to the doubles loss by taking four of six first sets in singles, guaranteeing that Rice would need at least one three-set win to win the match. As it developed, five of six matches moved to third sets with Campbell Salmon being the only player to win his match in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5. Freshman Kabeer Kapasi was the last to drop his opening set, falling a tiebreaker at the sixth line, but rebounded to drop only one game over the next two sets to score Rice's third point of the night. Navarro also assumed control of his match after an opening set loss, winning 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 to give Rice its fourth straight win.
Up Next: Samford and New Orleans will meet on Saturday at GRBTC and Rice will wrap up the weekend by facing New Orleans at 11 a.m. on Sunday, looking to take the team title in the Invitational for the first time since 2017.
Doubles: Rice jumped to the early advantage by taking the first point of the night with 6-2 wins at the first two lines.
Singles: Samford responded to the doubles loss by taking four of six first sets in singles, guaranteeing that Rice would need at least one three-set win to win the match. As it developed, five of six matches moved to third sets with Campbell Salmon being the only player to win his match in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5. Freshman Kabeer Kapasi was the last to drop his opening set, falling a tiebreaker at the sixth line, but rebounded to drop only one game over the next two sets to score Rice's third point of the night. Navarro also assumed control of his match after an opening set loss, winning 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 to give Rice its fourth straight win.
Up Next: Samford and New Orleans will meet on Saturday at GRBTC and Rice will wrap up the weekend by facing New Orleans at 11 a.m. on Sunday, looking to take the team title in the Invitational for the first time since 2017.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1
#1 Singles Match
1234
M. Ali Bellalouna / 0 [SAMM]
6420
360UF
#2 Singles Match
1234
Maxwell Giddens / 0 [SAMM]
2620
642UF
#3 Singles Match
1234
Sandeep Mohandoss / 0 [SAMM]
2650
624UF
#4 Singles Match
123
J.B. Pickard / 0 [SAMM]
612
466
#5 Singles Match
12
Darcy Nicholls / 0 [SAMM]
25
67
#6 Singles Match
123
Santiago Arredondo / 0 [SAMM]
701
666
Order of Finish:
5,6,4
Players Mentioned
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