Strong freshman play lifts Owls over Aggies

By Casey Michel     4/16/09 7:00pm

All year long, the men's tennis coaches have been harping on this team's youth as the crux of Rice's success. If the Owls, who entered last weekend 13-9, were going to have a shot at an NCAA Tournament berth, they would need their young guns, a trio of untried, unfettered freshmen, to step up. Last week, the coaches got their wish.

What seemed like a distant shot - Rice's seventh consecutive NCAA appearance - is now all but assured after a 7-0 mashing of then-No. 72 Southern Methodist University and a miraculous, unbelievable, choose-your-hyperbole road win against then-No. 12 Texas A&M University. Thanks to freshmen Sam Garforth- Bles, Christian Saravia and Isamu Tachibana, all of whom won their contests against the Aggies, Rice can shake off a season of ups and downs, nagging questions and nail-biting losses, and look to the postseason with more confidence than they've had all year.

To Assistant Coach Efe Ustundag (Baker '99), the victory against Texas A&M was the perfect way to end the regular season.

---

---

"This season it's our biggest win," Ustundag said. "[Texas A&M was] the highest-ranked team we beat this year, and the fact that we did it with our lowerclassmen, just freshmen stepping up and playing well, I think it showed ... what we were thinking we had the entire year. I think it's also going to fire up the upperclassmen and show them that maybe with their help it could actually end up being a really good end of the year."

So how did it get to this point? How does a team that had lost three in a row and 9 of its last 15 - six of which were by scores of 4-3 - find the heart and hustle to bust out of a late-season swoon?

Well, practice. Or, more specifically, the way the freshmen practice, loud and boisterously, energetically and enthusiastically. Every time Saravia and Tachibana face one another on the practice courts, others have to stop and watch, for the spectacle that goes on is not adequately captured in words.

Ustundag has said that he thinks the boisterousness is a boon to Rice's focus, providing the energy on a team that can occasionally look tired on the court.

That energy garnered in practice, the back-and-forth camaraderie that the freshmen share, helped focus their energy against an Aggies squad that had won eight of its last nine contests.

Doubles began slowly for the Owls, as Texas A&M's third-ranked pair of Conor Pollock and Austin Krajicek easily handled Rice's 52nd-ranked duo of seniors Tobias Scheil and Christoph Müller. At No. 2, Rice responded with an 8-3 victory of their own, as Tachibana and junior Bruno Rosa downed Austin Klores and Alexey Grigorov.

With the match's first point hanging in the balance, Saravia and Garforth-Bles, in only their seventh match as a pair, dug their heels in against Wil Spencer and Marcus Lunt. With the score knotted at 8-8, the Rice's young tandem pushed past Texas A&M's more experienced pair, and the Owls' 9-8 win gave Rice the lead.

The Aggies would not be denied, and with their top three players all ranked in the top 55, Texas A&M put down the Owls at Nos. 1, 2 and 3. All of a sudden, the momentum the Owls had gained with their gritty doubles win had disappeared.

But apparently, the freshmen missed the memo. Garforth-Bles took care of Grigorov with a 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 4. Tachibana then tossed Lunt aside, running his singles record to 18-2 with his straight-set win. With the score now at 3-3, Saravia began his third set against Klores, trying to avoid landing Rice its seventh 4-3 loss of the year.

Less than an hour later, Saravia was looking at the scoreboard with a grin plastered to his face, for he had taken the match 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2.

To Ustundag, Saravia's win might have put the contest away, but it was Garforth-Bles's win that put the Owls on the path to victory.

"There was relief - I didn't want to drive home with another 4-3 loss," Ustundag said. "Sam stepped up and played the best match I've seen him play all semester. It was something that was eluding us the entire year. Finally, Sam played the tennis he was capable of playing."

With the win, it is safe to say that Rice is breathing down the neck of the No. 32 University of Tulsa for Conference USA dominance. But the Owls and the Golden Hurricane will have to gut out the first two rounds of this weekend's C-USA Championship, held in Orlando, Fla., before they can finally decide who is better.

As it stands, Tulsa has the upper hand. Not only are the Golden Hurricane the three-time defending champions - every year, they have beaten Rice in the finals - but they also trumped the Owls 5-2 at home only a couple weeks ago.

There is little doubt that Tulsa will make it to the finals. The Owls, however, may have a tougher road. Even though they destroyed the Mustangs on Friday, SMU, which will probably face Rice in the second round, will likely not roll over as easily this time around.

"[SMU] could be a dangerous matchup because of how badly we beat them," Ustundag said. "Yes, we feel good about our tennis, but I don't think we're the favorites at all.

---