Men’s Tennis competes in Rice Invitational

By Spencer Moffat     10/22/19 9:08pm

After winning both doubles matches and each of the six singles matches Friday morning to open the Fall 2019 Rice Invitational, the Rice men’s tennis team failed to maintain its momentum with no player making it to the A Flight final. 

The doubles pairing of sophomore Karol Paluch and freshman Wes Barnett kicked off the Rice Invitational with an 8-4 victory against the University of the Incarnate Word. In a closer match, sophomore Adam Oscislawski and junior Conrad Russell defeated a doubles pair from the University of Texas, Arlington in a 9-8 victory. 

But the attempt to replicate Friday’s success the next day was unsuccesful. The Paluch/Barnett duo and Oscislawski/Russell combo each lost their only doubles match on Saturday.

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Head coach Efe Ustundag said Rice’s performance in doubles on Saturday failed to meet his expectations. 

“I thought Conrad and Adam could have competed a bit better this morning,” Ustundag said. “Karol and Wes both had four match points to win that one early on and credit to Texas A&M [University] with some good serving to get out of the jam and it just didn’t go our way.”

Junior Jacob Eskeland and Barnett helped rewrite the narrative later in the day by each winning in their respective singles matches. Eskeland rebounded after a first-set loss to defeat Solano Caffarena of UTA, advancing to a Sunday matchup with Patrick Poestinger of the University of Texas, San Antonio. Barnett defeated Incarnate Word’s Dennis Boisseau in a third-set tiebreaker to advance to the B Flight final. 

In total, Barnett’s victory took over three hours in a tight match featuring multiple disagreements concerning players’ judgements of the ball being in or out. The length of the match in addition to the heat also caused Incarnate Word’s Boisseau to cramp up, further delaying the match when he sought treatment. 

According to Ustundag, the conditions of the invitational were not harsh.

“To be honest with you, this is probably the most laid-back fall collegiate invitational they can have,” Ustundag said. “It’s not that taxing on the body.”

But the Owls were not able to capitalize, losing each of their singles matches in two straight sets on Saturday. Rice was also hampered by injuries. Junior Sumit Sarkar was unavailable for the entire tournament, while Oscislawski sat out singles play Saturday because of stomach issues. Ustundag said that Oscislawski played in doubles rather than singles because serving only one-fourth of the time in doubles play is slightly easier on the body. 

On Sunday, Barnett lost in the B Flight singles to A&M’s Guido Marson. However, junior Mohamed Abdel-Aziz earned a singles win in the consolation round for the Owls. The rest of the singles matches were defaulted, with Rice taking the losses in order to maintain the health of its athletes  leading into next week’s ITA Texas Regional. 

Ustundag said he is optimistic the Rice players will recover  throughout the fall season.  

“Hopefully between now and January, we can get the entire team to 100 percent,” Ustundag said. 

One player who was rested during the Invitational for Rice is Sarkar, a junior who was named Conference USA Player of the Year last season. Sarkar was one of only 32 male players nationwide  invited to play in the Oracle ITA Masters last month in Malibu, California.

Rice will head to Waco Oct. 25 for the ITA Texas Regional in its second-to-last tournament of the fall season. The team will next play at home Jan. 25, when it again takes on UIW at Rice’s George R. Brown Tennis Center.

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