Inconsistent play brings men's tennis tough losses

By Casey Michel     4/9/09 7:00pm

If you heard a crashing sound last week, it was not Rice's new electric car taking a spill but the men's tennis team's season starting its tumultuous final stretch. After coming within a breath of downing then-No. 18 Pepperdine University at home on March 27, the then-35th-ranked Owls dropped a gut-wrencher against then-No. 41 University of Oklahoma last Sunday. But these losses - the Owls' seventh and eighth by a score of 4-3 - did not hurt nearly as much as a 5-2 face-plant against the then-No. 29 University of Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane, which had been reeling with three losses in its last four games against ranked foes, showed Rice that it was still the team to beat in Conference USA.

"If you like losing, it's not [frustrating]," Head Coach Ron Smarr said. "But hell, I don't like losing. Maybe if we could coach better we wouldn't be losing all these 4-3's [and] 5-2's."

After spending the first half of the season on the road, the Owls were happy to be back at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium for a second week a row when No. 17 Pepperdine came to town. Rice was still on a high from its three-match sweep from a weekend before, but by the conclusions of doubles the team was back on the ground.

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Although the Owls grabbed a win at No. 2, the Waves' 10th-ranked doubles pair of Bassam Beidas and Omar Altmann surged against Rice's top duo, No. 52 Christoph Müller and Toby Scheil, in a 9-8 comeback victory. Junior Dennis Polyakov and freshman Christian Saravia held court with Stuart Keplar and Alex Llompart at No. 3, but the Pepperdine pair outlasted the two Owls, taking the tiebreaker and the doubles point.

Rice rebounded from the early edging by taking singles points at Nos. 5 and 6, as Polyakov and freshman Isamu Tachibana dropped only four games apiece.

Pepperdine's pendulum attack then cut down seniors Müller and Scheil, but Rice freshman Sam Garforth-Bles knotted the score with a straight-set win over Mahmoud Kamel.

With the score evened at 3-3, then-No. 46 Bruno Rosa was Rice's last hope for victory, struggling with No. 27 Beidas at the top of the ladder. Although Rosa had some impressive runs, Beidas was there at every turn to keep the Owl at bay long enough to win 7-5, 6-4.

"The Pepperdine match we deserved to win," Smarr said. "Sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way [but] it's a minor miracle we lost the match."

Against the Waves, the 4-3 score was more than indicative of the tight nature of the match. Against the Sooners, however, the Owls may as well have been shut out.

It did not take long for No. 34 Oklahoma to please the Norman, Okla., crowd, sweeping a lethargic Rice in doubles.

Garforth-Bles, Polyakov and Scheil then came out sluggishly in singles, and with three straight-set losses, the Sooners sealed their first win in three matches.

But with what Smarr called "the best practice of the year" on Saturday, Rice readied itself for its contest with the Golden Hurricane.

The doubles point, which went to Tulsa, was almost as tightly-contested as the point against Pepperdine. Müller and Scheil sloughed off 54th-ranked James Seagraves and Alberto Sottocorno 8-6. After Rosa and Tachibana dropped against Philip Stephens and Ashley Watling, Garforth-Bles and Saravia kept pace with Arnau Brugues and Marko Ballok. However, the more experienced Tulsa duo, currently ranked fifth in the country, outlasted the young Owls to win 8-6.

Ironically, it was actually Rice's young guns who then got Rice on the board. Saravia dispatched Seagraves 6-3, 6-4 at No. 6, and Tachibana, having won six contests in a row, kept his streak alive with a straight-set win over Ballok.

In the end, though, Tulsa proved too much for Rice's veterans, sweeping matches at the top four spots - including No. 2 Brugues' win over Müller - for the Golden Hurricane's biggest win against Rice in years.

Smarr said that if the Owls, now 13-9, hope to have a legitimate shot at cracking the NCAA Tournament, which will be held in May, then a win tomorrow against No. 72 Southern Methodist University is a must.

"SMU has historically played really well against us," said Smarr, whose team will compete tomorrow at Jake Hess at 1 p.m. "If we don't beat SMU, we're in real trouble."

After the Owls square off with the Mustangs they will take on No. 12 Texas A&M University, a team that will feature three players in the top 55, on Monday in College Station, Texas.

This matchup will round out Rice's regular season schedule, and presents Smarr's squad with an interesting test.

"Anybody can do anything when things are going well," the coach said. "I'm really anxious to see how we finish the year. If you're in sales and you're selling 15 houses a week, and all of a sudden you're selling one, that's where we are.

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