Men's tennis continues slide against LSU
Most Rice students across campus were in pain last week because of collisions with not-so-stray water balloons. The men's tennis team, on the other hand, was hurting for an entirely different reason. For the second week in a row, No. 17 Rice lost to a lower-ranked opponent at home, falling 4-2 to No. 26 Louisiana State University and dropping to 9-5 on the year. The defeat came one week after the Owls, then ranked 11th in the country, fell 4-3 against then- No. 17 Florida State University.Rice, which has only played two matches in the last two weeks, will pick up its leisurely pace this weekend. As host of the Rice Invite, the Owls will have matches against three ranked opponents in as many days. The first will be today at noon at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium against No. 49 University of Iowa. Iowa recently played the cutting board for the Ohio State University buzzsaw - the nation's No.2 team promptly routed the host Hawkeyes 7-0.
Tomorrow, the Owls welcome No. 72 Middle Tennessee State University at the same time. The Blue Raiders have only taken two of their last nine contests against ranked opponents, but No. 108 Marc Rocafort anchors a solid top of the lineup.
Rounding out this weekend's action, the Owls face arguably their toughest test at noon on Sunday - No. 67 University of San Diego. The Toreros' deceiving ranking hides a formidable roster, which boasts both No. 45 Thomas Liversage and No. 66 Dean Jackson, who beat Rice sophomore Christoph Müller, currently 49th in the country, last September.
"All of them are top-heavy, and I hope that we can play some better doubles, [which] is going to be key for us," assistant coach Efe Ustundag (Baker '99) said. "We have our work cut out. We might be the deepest team, hence the ranking, but all you need is four points [to win the team match]."
If the Owls are to break their recent spell of losses to lower-ranked opponents, they will need to come out stronger in doubles than they did against the Tigers. A threat of rain meant the match had to be moved to the Downtown Club at the Met instead of Jake Hess Tennis Stadium for the first time this season.
The switch in courts distracted the Owls' usually dominant doubles teams, which had won five of the previous six matches. The day began ominously, as the No. 16 pair of senior Ralph Knupfer and junior Christoph Müller fell to LSU's Michael Venus and James Cluskey by a score of 8-3. The defeat was only the German duo's second in their last seven matches, while Venus and Cluskey have now won five in a row.
Colt Gaston and Kevin Dessauer then thumped senior Filip Zivojinovic and sophomore Chong Wang 8-2 at No. 2 to give the Tigers a 1-0 advantage heading into singles.
"It was one of our worst double matches, where we really did not have a shot at No. 1 or No. 2," Ustundag said. "[That] hasn't been the case the entire year - one of these teams usually plays really well."
Wang's hope for three straight match wins was brought to an end as singles began. For the first time this season, he jumped up to No. 4, but a higher spot in the lineup meant tougher competition. After taking the first-set tiebreaker, Cluskey thrashed Wang in the second set to win 7-6 (5), 6-1.
With the match quickly slipping away, No. 26 sophomore Bruno Rosa responded with a 7-6 (4), 6-1 victory over No. 92 Jan Zelezny. The victory, the Brazilian's fifth triumph over a ranked opponent this season, brought the Owls within one.
After Knupfer, who had been battling shoulder injuries since the FSU match, dropped a close match to Julien Gauthier, Zivojinovic brought the Owls back from the brink with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-3 marathon win over Dessauer. Zivojinovic's win handed the Tiger his first loss in ten matches.
In a battle of ranked foes, No. 49 Müller began his matchup with No. 74 Venus in comfortable fashion with a first-set win. But with Rice one set from a tie, Müller could not find the right stroke to put Venus away. Two match points came and went for Müller, but Venus battled through and, in the end, came out on top with a 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 win.
To compound matters, Müller's second match point came when sophomore teammate Dennis Polyakov was ahead 3-0 in the third set at
No. 6, a fact which convinced Ustundag the team could pull out the win.
"At that point, I was thinking, 'OK, we can pull this off,'" Ustundag said. "But we just came up a little short. Nothing was left out on the court. It was just one of those good college matches that did not go your way.
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