Men fall to Texas in Austin for second time this year
The Owls traveled back to Austin on Saturday to get revenge against the seventh-ranked University of Texas after they were beaten 4-0 in Austin on Jan. 30 as part of the ITA National Team Indoors Championship. Rice could not get their payback as they were trampled by the Longhorns, 6-1.
The Owls nearly stole the doubles point to take an early 1-0 lead in this match but Texas fended them off by taking two of three matches. Sophomore Peter Frank and junior Sam Garforth-Bles upset the 30th-ranked doubles team in the nation in Texas' Kellen Damico and David Holliner, 8-4. Rice could not take advantage as the doubles teams of sophomore Harry Fowler and senior Oscar Podlewski along with junior Michael Nuesslein and sophomore Jonathan Chang fell by scores of 8-4 and 8-3, respectively. As a result, the Longhorns were in early charge of the match and took the momentum to singles play.
In singles, the matches went by quickly as none went past the second set. The Owls were doomed after the Longhorns won five of the first six sets. With junior Isamu Tachibana sidelined with a broken wrist for the rest of the season, Rice has yet to find a suitable replacement for him, as he went 8-1 this year, good for the best winning percentage on the team. In Tachibana's place, junior Andy Wang was defeated 6-1, 6-2 by Texas' Daniel Whitehead, brother of Rice senior golfer Michael Whitehead. The Longhorns continued the rout with wins by the 90th-ranked player Jean Andersen, the 28th-ranked player Ed Corrie, and then-59th-ranked player in Damico. The lone point of the day for the Owls came from Podlewski who recorded a very solid win against Texas sophomore Bob Chen, 6-2 6-3. Otherwise, it was a rough day on the courts as, in addition to Wang, Fowler, Frank, Garforth-Bles, Nuesslein all dropped their respective matches.
Going into the match, Podlewski felt that Rice could match up with the Longhorns, but he admitted that he felt Texas brought out their best effort on Saturday and that it was too much for the Owls to overcome.
"I thought that going into the match we matched up pretty well against them, but the UT players came out to play especially in singles and it was hard for our players as we did not play up to our possible potential," Podlewski said.
The Owls are now 13-6 and are ranked 39th in the country as they take a swing into Oklahoma this week as they play against their conference rivals the University of Tulsa (14-6) and at the 26th-ranked University of Oklahoma (11-4) in Norman, Okla. The Sooners took out the Golden Hurricane, 4-3, on Mar. 29 in Norman This is the first time the Owls have played Tulsa since their battle in the Conference USA tournament final, where Rice won in a 4-3 thriller to both win the conference championship and clinch an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
Once again, Podlewski expects to see the 35th-ranked Golden Hurricane in the conference tournament and that is why he sees this match and the OU match as very crucial in terms of where the Owls stand right now and what they need to do before postseason play begins.
"A win in this match would be very important as it would give us momentum going into the C-USA tournament," Podlewski said, "This match is a measuring stick as it will reflect how good our team really is."
After playing Texas and Texas A&M University in the past week, Podlewski believes that the team has no excuses now, as they have played some of the best teams in the country. He feels that the Owls have to go out there and execute on the court to show they are better than their ranking of 37.
"If we lose matches, both as a team and individually, there are no more excuses," Podlewski said, "We are not losing matches because we are not prepared. We are losing matches because we are being outperformed on the court. It is as simple as that."
For this weekend of action, Podlewski sees this as an opportunity to help add to their NCAA resume if they could pull off these upsets on the road.
"If we could win these matches, it would help us potentially get back in the top 25 if we could beat both Tulsa and Oklahoma on road," Podlewski said.
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