Rice University
Tulsa
Men's Tennis Set for AAC Championship Quarterfinals
4/18/2024 11:36:00 AM | Men's Tennis
In Brief: Rice men's tennis heads to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to compete in their first-ever AAC Championships. Rice enters the tournament as the No. 4 seed and will face the winner of Wichita State and Tulsa on Friday, April 19, at 2 p.m. (CT). The Owls finished the regular season with a 16-7 overall record and a 5-1 mark against AAC opponents.
The Schedule: Friday - Quarterfinals vs. Tulsa/Wichita State - 2 p.m. (CT)
Match Info: The AAC Men's Tennis Championship is being hosted by Tulsa at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. Live video and live results will be available for every match of the Championship.
The Owls: Rice is 16-7 on the year after a pair of wins last week, defeating Creighton, 7-0, on Senior Day at the George R. Brown Tennis Center before defeating UTSA on the road, 4-3. Rice honored seniors Yasha Zemel and Trinity Grear in between singles and doubles play against the Bluejays. In doubles, the Owls took the early point with wins at the first and third positions of the lineup. In singles, Zemel, Grear and junior Emir Sendogan won in order at the first three positions to clinch the match, all doing so in straight sets. At the fifth and sixth positions, sophomore Kabeer Kapasi and junior Eduardo Morais also won in straight sets. Freshman Petro Kuzmenok completed the sweep with a three-set victory at the No. 5s. The following day at UTSA, Rice faced stiff competition from the Roadrunners. Zemel and Kapasi extended their unbeaten streak in doubles play to eight matches with a win at the first position. Junior Arthus de la Bassetiere and Morais then clinched the doubles point at the third position. In a back-and-forth affair in singles play, Kuzmenok and Sendogan put the Owls on the verge of victory with a pair of straight-set victories at the fifth and fourth positions, respectively. In a winner-takes-all situation at the sixth position, Kapasi came back to win in three sets and seal the 4-3 road victory for the Owls.
Championship History: The Owls are competing in their first-ever AAC Championship. As members of Conference USA, Rice won a trio of titles in 2010, 2016 and 2017, and posted a total record of 24-14 in the tournament. The Owls entered the conference championships last season as the fourth seed and hosted the event, but fell in the quarterfinals to UAB, 4-3.
The Opposition: Rice is 3-1 all-time against Wichita State and defeated the Shockers, 4-0, as part of the Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational earlier this season. The meeting was the teams' first since a 4-3 Wichita State victory in 2018. The Shockers are 5-17 this season and enter the tournament as the No. 12 seed after closing the regular season with a 4-3 win over South Florida.
The Owls and Golden Hurricane would meet for the first time since facing off in the semifinals of the 2014 Conference USA Championship, which resulted in a 4-0 Tulsa victory. Rice is 9-17 all-time against Tulsa and has lost the past four matchups. The Golden Hurricane are 14-12 this season and are the 5-seed entering the AAC Championship. Tulsa closed the regular season on a five-match winning streak, including a 4-1 win over second-seeded SMU in the regular-season finale.
Players Mentioned
