Men's and women's tennis win one, lose one over weekend

By Casey Michel     4/15/10 7:00pm

Oscar Podlewski was struggling. He was hammering through the third set against the University of Tulsa's Alastair Barnes, trying to break him to no avail. The Tulsa players hung over the fence behind him, pricking him with not-so-friendly banter. Rice (11-10) was up 3-2 against its Conference USA rival, but sophomore Christian Saravia, battling a rough cold, was running on fumes at No. 6 and about to fall. All hopes of a victory lay at court No. 3, where Podlewski looked tired, shirt sweated through, Barnes snarling across the net. A 4-3 loss wouldn't have been the team's first, and it certainly wouldn't have been an upset - when the two teams met last Friday, Rice was 11 spots lower in the rankings than No. 31 Tulsa (14-8). But a loss here might have been the most disheartening of the year. At the home match, Rice was in a position to finally beat a higher-ranked team for the first time in more than two months. But Tulsa is the team that has kept the Owls from the C-USA crown four years in a row. In fact, Rice hadn't beaten the Golden Hurricane since the end of the 2006 season - before anyone on the current team was in the program.

"From the atmosphere, from the guys [Tulsa] had [hanging over the wall], they were pretty hungry, pretty aggressive, pretty intense," sophomore Michael Nuesslein said. "You could see the past, what had gone on in the past. You could see everything."

So it may have only been a regular-season match, and it may have had little implication in the rankings, but the atmosphere was humming. Podlewski, a junior, had dropped his first set and rallied for the second. Barnes was blustering and boisterous, but Podlewski, one of the more muted members of the team, kept his composure throughout. And by the time Barnes sent a forehand wide to give Podlewski a 7-5 win to close the match, a one-handed fist-pump served as perhaps the most understated celebration the team has seen all year.

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"In college tennis, it really comes down to heart and what goes on between your ears, and more than half the team in singles dealt with it a lot better than Tulsa," Assistant Coach Efe Ustundag (Baker '99) said.

It was certainly Rice's most exhilarating win of the season, a campaign that has seen the team come up short in multiple instances. Ustundag had said that the team had been waiting all year for a win like this, a win to give them enough momentum and confidence to finally snatch the conference title back from Tulsa.

And Tulsa will be waiting, just a few weeks from now, when the C-USA Tournament comes back to Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.

"They're the four-time conference champion," Ustundag said. "They're going to come back. The staff they have, from players to coaches, are the kind of team that will be back looking for revenge, or will be looking to take what's theirs. . It's our job to solidify that we accomplished here last weekend and take [the conference title] over from Tulsa."

For now, the Owls will play the waiting game. In what will serve as but a tune-up for the C-USA Tournament, Rice has a road contest against Southern Methodist University Sunday. With the way the Owls have played of late, a win against the unranked Mustangs (14-10) should come easily - though SMU, with six wins in its last seven matches, is coming off of a tight 4-3 victory over then-No. 34 Brigham Young University last Friday.

And the Owls can still afford to pick up some momentum that stalled in their 4-3 loss to the 21st-ranked University of Oklahoma last Sunday, a loss that surprised many on the squad. Saravia, Nuesslein and 24th-ranked senior Bruno Rosa all won their singles matches - which should have been enough, according to Ustundag, to clinch the win. But a collapse at the top doubles spot - Rice's 4-1 lead collapsed into 8-6 defeat - gave the Sooners (15-4) the edge.

Still, these are but blips on the end-of-season radar. Rice has proven that it can not only play with, but now beat, the best team in the conference. Two weeks from now, the Owls will have another chance - and this time for more than just pride on the line.

"We should be higher ranked than Tulsa right now," Nuesslein said. "It's not just that we can beat the best team in the conference - it's that we can beat any team in the country.

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