Friday, April 21
Houston, Texas
Noon
Rice University
vs
UAB
Photo by: RICE SID
Owls Set to Host C-USA Championship
4/20/2023 2:44:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Open play on Friday at noon
Houston: The Rice men's tennis team (12-19) plays host one last time to the Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship, opening play on Friday against UAB at noon at the George R. Brown Tennis Center. The 62nd-ranked Owls enter the weekend as the fourth seed and in pursuit of a fourth conference title in their final year in the league.
Follow the Action: Live video and scores for all matches of the 2023 C-USA Men's Tennis Championship will be available at https://riceowls.co/TennisLive23
Promotionally Speaking: There will be free tacos for fans attending the first-round matches on Friday.
The Schedule: Third-seeded FAU will meet Charlotte at noon in Friday's other quarterfinal match. The winner of the Rice-UAB match will face top-seeded Middle Tennessee at noon on Saturday while the winner of the FAU-Charlotte match will face #2 seed UTSA at noon. Saturday's winners advance to Sunday's 11 a.m. championship match.
In the Championship: Rice is 24-13 at the C-USA tournament since joining the conference in 2005-06. The Owls have hosted the championship four times (2007 & 2010 at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium; 2016 & 2018 at GRBTC). Rice is 8-2 when competing in the championship at home. The Owls have won three championships overall (2010, 2016-17), with two of the three coming on their home court. The Owls have appeared in nine championship matches, most recently in 2017 when they won their second consecutive title. The nine appearances are the most of any current C-USA school and tie Tulsa (2006-2014) for the most in the history of the event.
C-USA This Year: Rice was 1-2 this year against Conference USA opponents this season, losing to Middle Tennessee 5-2 in Murfreesboro in February and FAU 4-3 in Ft. Lauderdale in January and defeating UTSA 4-3 at GRBTC on April 8.
UAB: The Blazers are 20-6 this year. Rice is 7-1 in the series with UAB, having won the last seven after losing the first meeting in 2002 at the Blue-Gray Classic. The schools have met twice times at the C-USA tournament (2006, 2009) with Rice winning both. The Owls and Blazers last met in 2019 as part of the C-USA Showcase.
Seedings: The top seed has reached the championship match in each of the last 19 C-USA tournaments (12-7), but has split the last four. 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). Three-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 in 2021 and 2022. No team seeded lower than third has ever won the C-USA Men's Tennis title. Top seeds have won 13 titles, the second seeds have won seven, and the third seeds have won six times.
One in the Case: Three of the six schools competing have won at least one C-USA championship (MTSU & Rice 3; UTSA 1) while the other three have played in at least one championship match (UAB 2; FAU & Charlotte 1).
Career records vs. C-USA and at the C-USA Championship (singles/doubles):
Wes Barnett (3-5/3-4 overall; 0-0/1-1 C-USA Championship)
Trinity Grear (3-6/4-4 overall; 0-0/1-0 C-USA Championship)
Dylan Heap (0-1/2-0 overall)
Kabeer Kapasi (0-1/2-0 overall)
Eduardo Morais (0-0/1-0 overall; 0-0/0-1 C-USA Championship)
Santiago Navarro (1-1/2-0 overall)
Campbell Salmon (3-10/4-2 overall; 1-1/0-1 C-USA Championship)
Emir Sendogan (3-3/0-0 overall; 0-1/0-0 C-USA Championship)
Yasha Zemel (0-0/1-0 overall)
Notable:
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.
Follow the Action: Live video and scores for all matches of the 2023 C-USA Men's Tennis Championship will be available at https://riceowls.co/TennisLive23
Promotionally Speaking: There will be free tacos for fans attending the first-round matches on Friday.
The Schedule: Third-seeded FAU will meet Charlotte at noon in Friday's other quarterfinal match. The winner of the Rice-UAB match will face top-seeded Middle Tennessee at noon on Saturday while the winner of the FAU-Charlotte match will face #2 seed UTSA at noon. Saturday's winners advance to Sunday's 11 a.m. championship match.
In the Championship: Rice is 24-13 at the C-USA tournament since joining the conference in 2005-06. The Owls have hosted the championship four times (2007 & 2010 at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium; 2016 & 2018 at GRBTC). Rice is 8-2 when competing in the championship at home. The Owls have won three championships overall (2010, 2016-17), with two of the three coming on their home court. The Owls have appeared in nine championship matches, most recently in 2017 when they won their second consecutive title. The nine appearances are the most of any current C-USA school and tie Tulsa (2006-2014) for the most in the history of the event.
C-USA This Year: Rice was 1-2 this year against Conference USA opponents this season, losing to Middle Tennessee 5-2 in Murfreesboro in February and FAU 4-3 in Ft. Lauderdale in January and defeating UTSA 4-3 at GRBTC on April 8.
UAB: The Blazers are 20-6 this year. Rice is 7-1 in the series with UAB, having won the last seven after losing the first meeting in 2002 at the Blue-Gray Classic. The schools have met twice times at the C-USA tournament (2006, 2009) with Rice winning both. The Owls and Blazers last met in 2019 as part of the C-USA Showcase.
Seedings: The top seed has reached the championship match in each of the last 19 C-USA tournaments (12-7), but has split the last four. 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). Three-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 in 2021 and 2022. No team seeded lower than third has ever won the C-USA Men's Tennis title. Top seeds have won 13 titles, the second seeds have won seven, and the third seeds have won six times.
One in the Case: Three of the six schools competing have won at least one C-USA championship (MTSU & Rice 3; UTSA 1) while the other three have played in at least one championship match (UAB 2; FAU & Charlotte 1).
Career records vs. C-USA and at the C-USA Championship (singles/doubles):
Wes Barnett (3-5/3-4 overall; 0-0/1-1 C-USA Championship)
Trinity Grear (3-6/4-4 overall; 0-0/1-0 C-USA Championship)
Dylan Heap (0-1/2-0 overall)
Kabeer Kapasi (0-1/2-0 overall)
Eduardo Morais (0-0/1-0 overall; 0-0/0-1 C-USA Championship)
Santiago Navarro (1-1/2-0 overall)
Campbell Salmon (3-10/4-2 overall; 1-1/0-1 C-USA Championship)
Emir Sendogan (3-3/0-0 overall; 0-1/0-0 C-USA Championship)
Yasha Zemel (0-0/1-0 overall)
Notable:
- Rice is 16-5 in doubles this year and is 10-6 when clinching the doubles point, 2-3 when dropping the first point of the match.
- 10 of the Owls' 21 matches were extended to the full seven points, with Rice winning seven of 10, 4-3 matches.
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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