Sports Notebook: Rosa reaches NCAA semifinals

8/20/09 7:00pm

When junior Bruno Rosa began play in last May's NCAA Men's Tennis Singles Championship, it had been nearly forty years since Rice had produced a back-to-back All-American. But after running his way to the final 16, Rosa replaced Mike Estep (Will Rice '71), an All-American from 1969-71, as the last Owl to earn such honors.Having already led his team into the NCAA Tournament, Rosa joined then-senior Christoph Müller in the singles competition. While Müller fell in the first round to the University of Virginia's Sanam Singh, Rosa pushed past No. 8 Robert Farah of the University of Southern California, which was coming off of winning the national championship, in straight sets.

In the second round, Rosa met Florida State University's Clint Bowles, who had upset the Owl in straight sets in February. The first set in May turned out more of the same, with Bowles grabbing a 7-5 victory.

Rosa continued to sputter in the second round, soon finding himself down 5-1 and a game from defeat. The Owl spun off two games to make it 5-3 but, with Bowles serving, Rosa faced a 40-0 hole, one point from defeat.

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But that would prove to be the closest Bowles would come to victory, as Rosa snuffed out not just the three match points but rattled off nine straight games to trounce the Seminole.

With the victory, Rosa became the first Owl to make the round of 16 since William Barker made it in 2003. However, the junior would get no further, losing to eventual champion Devin Britton of the University of Mississippi 6-3, 6-4.

Now a senior, Rosa used the Singles Championship to round out an impressive year. In addition to leading Rice to a second-place finish in Conference USA, Rosa earned All-C-USA First Team honors and finished the year ranked 40th in the nation.

- Casey Michel

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