Women knock off first top-20 foe in ten years

By Chris Pettijohn     2/25/10 6:00pm

The women's tennis team's matches against No. 4 University of California-Los Angeles (9-1) and Pepperdine University (3-5) two weeks ago - matches in which the Owls (5-3) won a total of just two points - seem to have been exactly the kind of wake-up call the team needed. After seeing what it's like to play championship-caliber teams, Rice has been on a roll: the Owls have won their past three matches, two of which came over ranked opponents.

That streak, which saw Rice down both the University of Arizona (7-1) and Texas Tech University (5-3), reached a crescendo last Saturday with a 4-3 win over No. 20 University of Arkansas, arguably the team's closest and most challenging match of the year, according to Head Coach Elizabeth Schmidt.

"It was a five-hour match that could have gone either way," Schmidt said.

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The contest began in Rice's favor. While Arkansas (6-2) took the No. 2 doubles match early on, the 31st-ranked team of senior Julie Chao and sophomore Ana Guzman closed out a win at the No. 1 doubles position, and the team of junior Rebekka H?nle and senior Rebecca Lin took the win at the No. 3 doubles spot, clinching the doubles point for the Owls.

With a win in the doubles column, Rice held an advantage going into singles play. To widen the lead further, junior Jessica Jackson, ranked 100th in the nation, added some quick points. After the loss in her doubles match, Jackson bounced back in singles, quickly winning her match 6-0, 6-2 in about an hour and putting Rice ahead 2-0.

However, the shutout didn't last. Rice's lead shrunk to one point at 3-2 after a strong win by Guzman over Kelsey Sundaram 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 4 position was followed with losses at No. 1 and 6.

At this point, only Chao and Lin were left on the courts. After both had won their first set, they each lost close second-set tie-breakers. Chao could have put her match away in the tie-breaker as she took an early 5-3 lead, but her opponent, Emily Carbone, fought back and won four straight sets to take it 7-5. Lin's tie-break was also close, but she ended up losing to Stephanie Roy 9-7.

The third set began slowly for both Chao and Lin. Chao fell behind early in the match 2-0. Meanwhile, Lin saw Roy take a swift 5-1 lead, one point from victory.

And yet, somehow, Lin fought her way back into the match, in the process taking some pressure off of Chao.

While Lin did not win her match after such a hard charge back, losing 5-7, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, Chao persevered

after such a hard charge back, losing 5-7, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, Chao persevered and rattled off four games in a row to take the third set 6-3, thus clinching the entire match for Rice.

Schmidt saw the team's win as a full-squad battle.

"[The team] dug really deep, and it was a team effort," Schmidt said. "Everybody contributed."

Chao's performance garnered her Conference USA Women's Tennis Player of the Week honors. Her victory also gave Rice its first win over a top-20 ranked opponent in over a decade.

This win, though, came as no surprise to the women's tennis team.

"Every single one of us had the belief that we could beat them," Chao said.

Next week, the team takes to the road to face Louisiana State University (2-5) on Saturday and Tulane University (4-2) on Sunday. This will be Tulane's second season back after putting its women's tennis program on hiatus after Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, the Tigers, who were once ranked 28th in the nation, have all but imploded as the season continues.

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