2008 Woodie Awards
After jump in ranking, men's tennis falls against No. 17 Florida State
Casey Michel
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: Sports
For the men's tennis team, the confines of Jake Hess Tennis Stadium are a welcome sight. In most instances, that is. The Owls, ranked 13th in the nation, found themselves rudely treated by a visiting Florida State University, which pulled out a 4-3 come-from-behind win last Tuesday. Rice's loss to the 17th-ranked Seminoles came on the heels of a California road swing that saw them drop two ranked opponents. However, those wins sandwiched a 7-0 blowout loss to the No. 6 University of California-Los Angeles on March 5, Rice's first road loss to a top-50 opponent this year.
The Owls finally get a reprieve from their strenuous schedule, with an entire week off until their next match - a home contest against No. 26 Louisiana State University next Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. The Tigers have been streaky of late, winning three in a row after dropping a pair of matches to ranked foes, and boast only one player, No. 86 Michael Venus, in the top 115.
Rice, on the other hand, can lay claim to three players in the top 115, as revealed March 2 in the first computerized rankings of the year. In addition, Rice jumped 13 spots to No. 11 in the nation as of March 9, the team's highest ranking since June of 2004, when the Owls bowed out of the NCAA tournament after falling in the Round of 16.
However, according to sophomore Chong Wang, the high rankings may have created harmful contentment among a team which once downed the heavily favored No. 10 University of North Carolina.
"The main difference [between Rice and FSU] is they came out with so much more fire than us," Wang said. "We kind of addressed that issue last week, and I'm pretty sure we'll address it [again]. These other teams seem so hungry, but once the rankings came out, we feel like we're doing well. It's almost as if we feel like we're done, like we finished our thing. There's just not as much energy, not as much fire. I might be wrong, but I feel like the team we played today was an image of what we played like when we [beat] UNC and NC State."
The Owls finally get a reprieve from their strenuous schedule, with an entire week off until their next match - a home contest against No. 26 Louisiana State University next Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. The Tigers have been streaky of late, winning three in a row after dropping a pair of matches to ranked foes, and boast only one player, No. 86 Michael Venus, in the top 115.
Rice, on the other hand, can lay claim to three players in the top 115, as revealed March 2 in the first computerized rankings of the year. In addition, Rice jumped 13 spots to No. 11 in the nation as of March 9, the team's highest ranking since June of 2004, when the Owls bowed out of the NCAA tournament after falling in the Round of 16.
However, according to sophomore Chong Wang, the high rankings may have created harmful contentment among a team which once downed the heavily favored No. 10 University of North Carolina.
"The main difference [between Rice and FSU] is they came out with so much more fire than us," Wang said. "We kind of addressed that issue last week, and I'm pretty sure we'll address it [again]. These other teams seem so hungry, but once the rankings came out, we feel like we're doing well. It's almost as if we feel like we're done, like we finished our thing. There's just not as much energy, not as much fire. I might be wrong, but I feel like the team we played today was an image of what we played like when we [beat] UNC and NC State."
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