Men's tennis goes on 1-1 road trip in Louisiana

By Dan Elledge     2/10/11 6:00pm

There are times when effort can overcome a talent deficiency, and the men's tennis team's trip to the Pelican State was unfortunately one of those times. Assistant Coach Efe Ustundag (Baker '99) knew that it was going to be hard for the Owls to go into Louisiana and come back unscathed, especially having to take a trip to 45th-ranked Louisiana State University (1-2), who needed a win over a highly ranked Rice squad to bolster its NCAA tournament resume. "LSU was going to throw everything they had because [they knew] we were their ticket to the NCAA tournament," Ustundag said.

Unfortunately, Ustundag was right, as LSU threw the kitchen sink and then some to dispatch the Owls in what was a heartbreaking match, 5-2. The Owls lost the doubles point and ended up losing four of the six singles points as well. Another key to the defeat was that, out of the six tiebreakers, Rice only won two. Only sophomore Harry Fowler, ranked 44th nationally among individuals, and senior Oscar Podlewski came away with victories.

Ustundag felt that the team went away from the game plan and ended up being too impatient and too fancy, which led to a rough defeat.

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"It was a match of bad concentration, as we were not patient enough," Ustundag said. "We wanted to be too good, as the shots had to be spectacular and the points had to be exciting."

Fowler felt that being on the road just made it that much harder for the Owls and gave LSU the edge it needed to pull off the upset.

"I think playing on the road was harder at their facility, and we just didn't pull it out," Fowler said.

The weekend was not all lost for the Owls, as they had a good win Friday in New Orleans against Tulane University (3-1). Tulane was much improved from last year, according to Fowler.

In the 4-2 victory, Rice was led by wins from Fowler, Podlewski, freshman Philipp Seifert and junior Christian Saravia. The doubles point was not played due to the fact that the match was moved indoors, and the Owls wanted to get out of town before they encountered any bad weather.

Rice returns to the friendly confines of Jake Hess Tennis Stadium this weekend, hosting the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (0-2) today at 1:30 p.m. and Abilene Christian University (0-0) and University of Texas- San Antonio (1-1) tomorrow at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., respectively.

Although he expects this week to be much easier than the past two, Ustundag is worried that if the Owls don't fix their blunders, the Ragin' Cajuns could prove to be a challenge.

"If we stay impatient again and try to make things look too good, then Lafayette is going to give us about all we can handle," Ustundag said.

Fowler agreed, saying the team always has to be prepared, as they never know what can happen in any given match.

"You've got to stay prepared, as you never know what to expect and in college tennis, there is so much momentum," Fowler said. "You lose one or two points and, all of a sudden, it is a close match, so you can never know what can happen."

Ustundag is just satisfied that the Owls are finally back home and hopes that they can put the loss to LSU behind them as the season goes forward.

"Hopefully we will just put this week behind us and do the things I know that the guys are capable of doing and playing some smart Rice tennis," Ustundag said.

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