Men's tennis out in Waco regional
Heading into the final weeks of the season, the Owls wanted to finish the season with a bang. Even though Rice finished second in the conference to the 36th-ranked University of Tulsa (21-7), the Owls still had a chance to beat them in the conference tournament and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The Owls easily took care of Tulane University (11-11) in the first round of the conference tournament by handing them a 4-0 defeat lead by singles victories from sophomore Peter Frank, senior Oscar Podlewski, and junior Michael Nuesslein. In the semifinals, it was the same story for the Owls as they easily took care of business by defeating Southern Methodist University, 4-1. The Owls lost the doubles point, but did not hang their heads as they rallied to sweep singles thanks to wins from sophomore Harry Fowler, junior Sam Garforth-Bles, junior Christian Saravia, and Nuesslein. With this win, the Owls were headed back to the Conference USA finals for the sixth straight year, where they would face Tulsa.
On May 3, the Owls learned that they had earned a bid to the NCAA tournament, as they would be placed in the Baylor University (20-4) regional hosted in Waco, Texas. Along with Baylor, Rice was placed in the same region with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (14-10) and their first round opponent, Texas Tech University (17-10).
The Red Raiders came into the match with a 16-9 record and a ranking of 22nd in the nation. The Owls were ready, as they still recognized that they could achieve their dream of reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Unfortunately, the Owls got off to another slow start as they were swept in doubles. Trailing 1-0, Rice did not fall apart like they did against Tulsa as they pushed Texas Tech to the brink. Singles did not start great for the Owls either. Fowler had a tough match as he lost to Texas Tech junior Raony Carvalho, who is ranked 23rd in the nation. That put Rice in a 2-0 hole, but Garforth- Bles rallied with a quick two-set victory on court four which brought the score back to 2-1. Podlewski helped tie up the match at two all as he won in two sets on court 3. Then, the Owls could almost taste the second round as Saravia won in two sets on court 5. Rice had come all the way back to take the lead in the match, 3-2.
However, Texas Tech would not call it quits as they rallied back to tie the match at three all thanks to a win by junior Gonzalo Escobar, ranked 26th in the nation, over Frank on court 2. With the match tied at three, it would all come down to the match on court 6 featuring Rice freshman Phillip Seifert. Seifert could not quite make the Rice comeback complete as he lost in three sets to give Texas Tech the 4-3 victory. With the loss, the Owls' season was over along with the dream of a Sweet 16 berth.
Assistant coach Efe Ustundag was ecstatic about the effort by the players, but felt that nerves got the
best of the Owls in the end as they could not quite complete the comeback.
"I could tell that we were nervous as there was a lot of nervous energy amongst the team and in the end that might have made the difference but I was very proud of the team's effort," Ustundag said.
With the loss, the Owls finished the season at 17-10 with a conference record of 7-2. The season started well for Rice as they got out to a 13-4 start, but ended up stumbling down the stretch as they could never get that marquee win as they failed to win the conference title and fell in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Ustundag said that the Owls had an up and down season as he felt that injuries played a major role as there were a few players who could not seem to stay on the court.
"The season started off great for us but we lost too many people to injury like Nuesslein, Garforth- Bles, and [junior] Isamu Tachibana," Ustundag said. "We did not get to play six healthy people day in and day out and that hurt us."
Along with that statement, Ustundag felt that the Owls cannot be satisfied by reaching the conference final and making the NCAA tournament as he feels like they are better than how they performed overall this season.
"For me, the conference final is not a goal anymore," Ustundag said. "We have got to do better than just making the NCAA tournament. We have the talent to do better than that."
With only the loss of senior Podlewski from this year's team, the Owls are very excited for next year and beyond as Ustundag said that the players experience from this year should help them grow in the future. Even though he is not going to be back next season, Podlewski is positive that the Owls are going to achieve better things than they did this season.
"It is too bad I will not be around next season as I think this team is going to be very successful and is going to be great," Podlewski said.
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