Friday, March 10
Houston, Texas
5 PM
Rice University
vs
Samford
Owls Host Samford and New Orleans for Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational
3/9/2023 1:25:00 PM | Men's Tennis
64th annual event begins on Friday
In Brief: Riding a three-match winning streak that has vaulted them back into the ITA national rankings, the Rice men's tennis team (6-7) welcomes Samford (7-5) and New Orleans (6-4) this weekend for the 64th Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational.
The Schedule: Rice and Samford open the weekend with a 5 p.m. dual on Friday. Samford and New Orleans will meet at noon on Saturday and then Rice and New Orleans close out the weekend at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
The Invitational: The Rice Invitational began in 1959 as a singles and doubles championship draw at the Glencrest Country Club in Houston. Rice's Art Foust, who had teamed with Ronnie Fisher to win the SWC Doubles title in 1958 and would do so again in 1959, upset the top-seeded Fisher to claim the inaugural Rice Invite singles crown. The following year, The Frank D. Guernsey Jr. and Wilber E. Hess Challenge Cup was introduced to celebrate the winning team and individuals and Chuck McKinley of Trinity led the Tigers to the first of their 13 Rice Invitational team titles by capturing the singles crown. Three years later, McKinley won the men's singles at Wimbledon and went on to team with Dennis Ralston to win three US Open doubles titles. He was inducted into the ITA Men's Hall of Fame, the first of seven Rice Invitational singles winners who would go on to be inducted into the Hall (Antonio Palafox, Corpus Christi; Mike Estep and Harold Solomon, Rice; Dick Stockton, Trinity; Mike DePalmer & Paul Annacone, Tennessee). The singles competition was phased out in 1989 in place of the current dual format. Rice has won 18 of the last 31 team titles but saw their run of 10 consecutive team titles end in 2018 as Wichita State took home the team title.
How to Follow:
Live video and scores for all three matches will be available at RiceTennisLive23.
The Owls: Rice improved 6-7 on the season and moved to #71 in the ITA computer rankings with a pair of wins in New Mexico last weekend. The Owls opened their weekend by defeating Portland 4-2 and then edged #68 New Mexico 4-3 pm Sunday. It was the fifth time in 10 road matches that the outcome was decided by a single point (Rice is 3-2).
Samford: The Bulldogs have won their last three matches to improve to 7-5 this season. This will be the first meeting between the schools in men's tennis.
New Orleans: The Privateers have also won three straight matches and head to Houston with a 6-4 record. This will be the ninth meeting between the schools, with Rice having won the previous eight.
Notable:
Up Next: The Owls will combined with the Rice women's team to host a combined dual with Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
The Schedule: Rice and Samford open the weekend with a 5 p.m. dual on Friday. Samford and New Orleans will meet at noon on Saturday and then Rice and New Orleans close out the weekend at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
The Invitational: The Rice Invitational began in 1959 as a singles and doubles championship draw at the Glencrest Country Club in Houston. Rice's Art Foust, who had teamed with Ronnie Fisher to win the SWC Doubles title in 1958 and would do so again in 1959, upset the top-seeded Fisher to claim the inaugural Rice Invite singles crown. The following year, The Frank D. Guernsey Jr. and Wilber E. Hess Challenge Cup was introduced to celebrate the winning team and individuals and Chuck McKinley of Trinity led the Tigers to the first of their 13 Rice Invitational team titles by capturing the singles crown. Three years later, McKinley won the men's singles at Wimbledon and went on to team with Dennis Ralston to win three US Open doubles titles. He was inducted into the ITA Men's Hall of Fame, the first of seven Rice Invitational singles winners who would go on to be inducted into the Hall (Antonio Palafox, Corpus Christi; Mike Estep and Harold Solomon, Rice; Dick Stockton, Trinity; Mike DePalmer & Paul Annacone, Tennessee). The singles competition was phased out in 1989 in place of the current dual format. Rice has won 18 of the last 31 team titles but saw their run of 10 consecutive team titles end in 2018 as Wichita State took home the team title.
How to Follow:
Live video and scores for all three matches will be available at RiceTennisLive23.
The Owls: Rice improved 6-7 on the season and moved to #71 in the ITA computer rankings with a pair of wins in New Mexico last weekend. The Owls opened their weekend by defeating Portland 4-2 and then edged #68 New Mexico 4-3 pm Sunday. It was the fifth time in 10 road matches that the outcome was decided by a single point (Rice is 3-2).
Samford: The Bulldogs have won their last three matches to improve to 7-5 this season. This will be the first meeting between the schools in men's tennis.
New Orleans: The Privateers have also won three straight matches and head to Houston with a 6-4 record. This will be the ninth meeting between the schools, with Rice having won the previous eight.
Notable:
- Eight of the Owls first 10 matches away from home have come against teams were have been ranked in the ITA Top 75 this year. Rice defeated USF and New Mexico and fell to Air Force, FAU, Middle Tennesee, Tulane, UCSB, and Vanderbilt.
- Rice is 9-4 in doubles this season and has a combined record of 21-11 so far this year. The Owls are 5-4 when winning the point, 1-3 when dropping the first point.
- Emir Sendogan leads the Owls with a 9-3 record in singles, while freshman Kabeer Kapasi has a 9-1 mark in doubles while partnering with Yasha Zemel (5-0) and Eduardo Morais (4-1)
- Clinch Points: Trinity Grear and Emir Sendogan (2), Santiago Navarro and Yasha Zemel (1)
Up Next: The Owls will combined with the Rice women's team to host a combined dual with Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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