Rain keeps men indoors

By Casey Michel     3/19/09 7:00pm

With rain falling from the early morning on, then-No. 31 Rice's contest against then- No. 51 Duke University and then-No. 75 University of Southern Mississippi never stood a chance at being played at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium. As puddles precluded the Owls' first home matches since the beginning of the semester, the teams headed elsewhere to play for what was, for all intents and purposes, Rice's ninth- and 10th- straight road matches of the year. Since the Owls had a .500 record in the eight road matches leading up to last weekend, it should come as little surprise that the team left the weekend with a Friday loss to the Blue Devils and a Sunday victory against the Golden Eagles.

Traveling to the MET Tennis and Racquet Club on Friday, the Owls squared off with the Blue Devils on neutral territory. But the lack of antagonistic fans did not equate to an advantage. Seniors Christoph Müller and Toby Scheil, ranked 47th in doubles, were the only Rice tandem to get on the board against Duke, downing the unranked pair of Kiril Dimitrov and Alain Michel 8-3.

But junior Bruno Rosa and freshman Isamu Tachibana barely lost their first doubles point of the year, and freshmen Sam Garforth-Bles and Christian Saravia could not hold on at No. 3, putting Duke in the lead.

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Rosa, then ranked 49th in the country, rebounded with an impressive 6-4, 6-2 win over then-No. 53 Dimitrov. Tachibana then took care of Michel, and for the moment Rice had a 2-1 advantage.

However, Duke bounced back with three straight wins in the middle of the ladder, which included Jared Pinsky's win over No. 103 Garforth-Bles, and the Blue Devils clinched Rice's fifth loss in seven matches.

Assistant Coach Efe Ustundag (Baker '99) believed the indoor conditions contributed to the loss.

"Obviously we would have loved to play that match outdoors," Ustundag said. "I think playing indoors against a team that competes indoors, like Duke, certainly was a better-suited situation for them. . This was a really, really disappointing loss."

With the rain continuing to pound away any chance of an actual home match, Rice's Sunday contest with the Golden Eagles, the team's first Conference USA match since its season-opener with the University of Memphis, was moved to the tucked-away Galleria Tennis Center. Again, it looked as if the Owls were going to be hampered by a slow start, as the team dropped its second doubles point of the weekend.

Müller then went cold, dropping a straight-set match with Patricio Alvarado, at No.1, the Owls looked done.

Fortunately, a balanced attack from the bottom of the lineup righted Rice's attempt. Rosa, Garforth-Bles, Tachibana and junior Dennis Polyakov rattled off four straight wins, and when Saravia finished off Strate Krstevski, the Owls were holding a 5-2 victory.

Despite the win, Ustundag was not entirely happy.

"It was looking a lot closer than that match needed to be," he said. "It was certainly not that dominant of a victory that I think we would have liked to see coming off of a really, really key loss. . Apparently we were still in San Diego, as far as I'm concerned."

After these two "home" contests, the Owls took to the road once more, driving to Austin to face then-No. 11 University of Texas on Tuesday. In a battle that suited the two squads' storied history, Rice nearly downed the Longhorns, falling just short in the team's 4-3 loss.

"We matched up with the Longhorns, really well," Ustundag said. "It was a classic Rice-Texas match that came to the wire. Since I've been here, every match has come down to 4-3. . We always play Texas very closely - yesterday was no different."

Although the Owls were swept in doubles, Rosa's 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 45 Ed Corrie kick-started Rice's attack. Müller found a buzzsaw in No. 19 Dimitar Kutrovsky, falling in straight sets, but Tachibana beat his first ranked foe of the year, No. 112 Olivier Sajous, to keep the match competitive.

Garforth-Bles, however, fell to Miguel Reyes Varela - the Longhorn who, two days previously, had dropped four match points in Texas's loss to No. 1 University of Virginia. Josh Zavala then downed Polyakov at the bottom of the ladder, and the Longhorns' victory was clinched.

Ustundag saw a strong performance from the singles matches.

"This was probably the best singles match we've played all year," Ustundag said. "You could see the worry in the Texas coach's eye. . Maybe they took us lightly, because we didn't have any decent scores in our last six, seven matches to scare anybody, let alone a top-10 team. Maybe they were feeling the effects of the Virginia match."

At long last, Rice will get a chance to play at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium this weekend. With their matches at noon, the Owls will host the 51st Annual Hampton Inn Galleria Rice Invite, facing the University of Texas-Pan American today, 39th-ranked Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi tomorrow and No. 38 San Diego State University Sunday.

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