Online only: Women's tennis opens in Midland
While the men's tennis team already had a weekend's worth of competition under their belt a week ago, the women's squad traveled to Midland, Texas, to begin their fall schedule at the Midland Invitational. The doubles duo of junior Varsa Shiva-Shankar and senior Rebecca Lin performed the strongest for the Owls, playing their way to the semifinals of the tournament. Shiva-Shankar and Lin began the tournament on Friday with a win over Amy Joubert and Shannon MacKenzie of the University of North Texas by a score of 8-5. With that win, Shiva-Shankar and Lin met the No. 3 seeds in the tournament, Carla Lindlar and Karolina Filipiak of Baylor University. Although Lindlar and Filipiak came in with a higher ranking and a day of rest after enjoying a bye in the tournament's first round, Shiva-Shankar and Lin handily won the match by a score of 8-2.
Having advanced to Sunday play in the semifinals, Shiva-Shankar and Lin were one win within reach of the tournament title. However, the tandem of Kayla Duncan and Megan Alexander of Texas Christian University proved to be too much for the Owls. The eventual tournament champions defeated Rice's remaining doubles squad 8-5.
On the singles side of play, sophomore Ana Guzman and senior Julie Chao each reached the round of 16. Guzman fell to Ali Waters of Pepperdine University 6-4, 6-1 and Chao dropped to Nazari Urbina of Texas A&M University 6-0, 6-2.
The women will compete in the Rice Classic at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium today, tomorrow and Sunday.
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