Women deliver rout at home after road struggles

By Prem Ramkumar     2/26/09 6:00pm

While the Seattle, Wash., rain was washing away the women's tennis team's chances at good weather, the competition was washing away Rice's chances at a successful road swing. The 75th-ranked Owls fell to 8-4 this past weekend at the Nordstrom Tennis Center after a pair of losses against then-40th-ranked Sacramento State and then-34th-ranked University of Washington. Sacramento State, undefeated on the year, came into the match with momentum after pulling off an upset against Washington the day before. With a dastardly combination of experience and talent, the Hornets took it to the Owls in a 5-2 decision. Junior Julie Chao and freshman Alex Rasch managed to secure the only two points of the match with straight-set wins over Aileen Tsan and Joyce Martinez, respectively.

Though the match did not look close on paper, the Owls were a tiebreaker, a three-set match and a doubles point win away from an impressive upset. Junior Rebecca Lin lost a 3-6, 6-1, 5-7 decision to Clarisse Baca, and sophomore Jessica Jackson dropped a 6-7 (4), 3-6 match to Luba Schifris at the No. 3 singles spot, and the Hornets took doubles despite Rice's nice win at No. 1 behind junior Julie Chao and freshman Ana Guzman's strong play.

"It was great that we were close, but that's not good enough," head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. "We can take confidence in that, but I don't believe in moral victories. We had situations we didn't take ... We cannot give them an inch, or they will take it. If we are up, we have to learn to finish them off. It was a very close match. It's great to be right in there with those teams, but we aren't satisfied with being right in there anymore."

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The next day, the Owls took on an even higher ranked opponent in the Huskies, looking to atone for their previous day's loss to the Hornets. As a result, the Huskies came out firing and caught the Rice off guard in a 7-0 rout. In a completely dominant performance, Washington did not give up a single set in the entire match.

"We did not perform our best, but it was a great taste of what competition is to come," Jackson said. "It has made us refocus our goals and [made us] even more determined to improve and work harder than any other team every time we step out onto the court."

The Owls returned to action back at Jake Hess Stadium on Wednesday against Lee College, where they once again demonstrated their resilience with a 7-0 rout. In a flip of their match against Washington, Rice swept the doubles point and did not drop a single singles match.

Next, Rice travels to Kalamazoo, Mich., where it takes on No. 61 Western Michigan University tomorrow. The following Tuesday, the team will head to Columbus, Oh., against the highly-touted 34th-ranked Ohio State University squad.

In the next ten matches the Owls will face six ranked opponents. Wins against any number of them could launch them towards their goals of a conference championship and NCAA Tournament berth.

"We have learned a lot from this past week of tennis," Schmidt said. "We learned how to play indoors for the first time this year. The points are faster. Our serves are faster. We have to give ourselves less margin of error to be successful. We are playing indoors again this weekend, so we have to learn to adjust. I am glad that we got exposure though - it will definitely help us for our next two matches indoor.

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