Sunday, March 5
Albuquerque, New Mexico
3 PM
Rice University
4
at
3
#68 New Mexico
Grear Caps Rally Over Lobos
3/5/2023 8:52:00 PM | Men's Tennis
First win over a ranked team since 2016
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Trinity Grear capped an epic comeback by Rice with a dominating performance in the deciding tiebreaker to give the Owls a 4-3 win over #68 New Mexico on the Lobos' home court on Sunday. The Owls dropped five of six first sets in singles, but forced three of those matches to third sets. With the match tied at 3-3, Grear ran the table and won the tiebreaker 7-0 to allow the Owls to improve to 6-7 on the season and give them their first win over a ranked opponent since 2016.
Doubles: The Owls opened strongly, taking the first point of the match for the ninth time this season with wins at the first two lines. With both matches tied 3-3, Rice surged to the point by winning three of the last four games on each court.
Singles: The Lobos answered the challenge laid down in doubles by taking five of six first sets in singles. Santiago Navarro was the lone Owl to win his first set and while his teammates fashioned comebacks on four of five courts, he held off the Lobos' Nikolay Sysoev to win in straight sets and put Rice back in front 2-1. After New Mexico closed out wins at the first and sixth lines to take a 3-2 match, the outcome came down to matches at the second and fifth lines, but only after Campbell Salmon rallied from deficits of 4-0 and 5-2, twice fighting off match points and then dominate his tiebreaker to force a third set at the fifth line. At the same time, Grear bounced back from a 6-2 loss in his first set to force a third set at two. Salmon carried his momentum forward to win his third set 6-3 and tie the match at 3-3, leaving it to Grear and the Lobos' Rafael Abdulsalam to determine the outcome. Neither player could gain an advantage during the final set, but in the tiebreaker, it was all Grear who did not drop a point to clinch the win.
Notable:
Efe Ustundag: "Just a pure battle, I can't say enough about these guys and I'm really, really proud of them. All we did this weekend was fight, grind and do whatever we needed to do to stay in the matches and give ourselves a chance. We jumped on them early in doubles. We played two very good doubles teams the last two days and we just hung in there, dug ourselves out of holes, saved break points here and there and that obviously ended up being a massive point for us. These conditions were tough, playing at altitude and then the wind really picked up after doubles. Santiago getting his first set and then keeping his lead was huge and it created the scenario where if we get these other matches to a third set, we only needed two more points. Trinity may have hit one winner in the tiebreak, but he made his guy play his game and the guy probably made 5-6 errors. Even though he had a terrible tiebreak yesterday he came back and completely dominated today. We have played a lot of road matches a lot of 4-3 matches that have gone against us but that had a lot to do with, with us coming out on top today."
Up Next: After playing 10 of their first 13 matches this season away from home, the Owls will close the year playing eight of the last nine at George R. Brown Tennis Center. That stretch opens next weekend when the host Samford and New Orleans as part of the 64th Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational.
Doubles: The Owls opened strongly, taking the first point of the match for the ninth time this season with wins at the first two lines. With both matches tied 3-3, Rice surged to the point by winning three of the last four games on each court.
Singles: The Lobos answered the challenge laid down in doubles by taking five of six first sets in singles. Santiago Navarro was the lone Owl to win his first set and while his teammates fashioned comebacks on four of five courts, he held off the Lobos' Nikolay Sysoev to win in straight sets and put Rice back in front 2-1. After New Mexico closed out wins at the first and sixth lines to take a 3-2 match, the outcome came down to matches at the second and fifth lines, but only after Campbell Salmon rallied from deficits of 4-0 and 5-2, twice fighting off match points and then dominate his tiebreaker to force a third set at the fifth line. At the same time, Grear bounced back from a 6-2 loss in his first set to force a third set at two. Salmon carried his momentum forward to win his third set 6-3 and tie the match at 3-3, leaving it to Grear and the Lobos' Rafael Abdulsalam to determine the outcome. Neither player could gain an advantage during the final set, but in the tiebreaker, it was all Grear who did not drop a point to clinch the win.
Notable:
- This was the seventh time in 10 matches away from home for the Owls decided by 4-3 scores.
- Seven of the 10 road opponents are currently ranked in the ITA Top 75. Rice defeated the current #57 USF prior to the first computer rankings being released and fell to the current #28 Middle Tennessee, #37 UCSB, #51 FAU, #62 Tulane, and #67 Air Force.
Efe Ustundag: "Just a pure battle, I can't say enough about these guys and I'm really, really proud of them. All we did this weekend was fight, grind and do whatever we needed to do to stay in the matches and give ourselves a chance. We jumped on them early in doubles. We played two very good doubles teams the last two days and we just hung in there, dug ourselves out of holes, saved break points here and there and that obviously ended up being a massive point for us. These conditions were tough, playing at altitude and then the wind really picked up after doubles. Santiago getting his first set and then keeping his lead was huge and it created the scenario where if we get these other matches to a third set, we only needed two more points. Trinity may have hit one winner in the tiebreak, but he made his guy play his game and the guy probably made 5-6 errors. Even though he had a terrible tiebreak yesterday he came back and completely dominated today. We have played a lot of road matches a lot of 4-3 matches that have gone against us but that had a lot to do with, with us coming out on top today."
Up Next: After playing 10 of their first 13 matches this season away from home, the Owls will close the year playing eight of the last nine at George R. Brown Tennis Center. That stretch opens next weekend when the host Samford and New Orleans as part of the 64th Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1
#1 Singles Match
12
46
Arda Azkara / 0 [UNM]
66
#2 Singles Match
123
277
Rafael Abdulsalam / 0 [UNM]
656
#3 Singles Match
12
24
Aram Noroozian / 0 [UNM]
66
#4 Singles Match
12
66
Nikolay Sysoev / 0 [UNM]
44
#5 Singles Match
123
376
Ryoma Matsushita / 0 [UNM]
663
#6 Singles Match
123
464
Georgio Samaha / 0 [UNM]
646
Order of Finish:
3,4,1,6,5,2
Players Mentioned
WBB: Rice vs. Marshall Postgame Presser
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VB: Rice-Texas Postgame Presser
Saturday, December 04
VB: Rice-San Diego Postgame Presser
Thursday, December 02