Women close out regular season with resounding win

By Christopher Pettijohn     4/22/10 7:00pm

After navigating a season filled with peaks and valleys, the women's tennis team reached the finale of its four-month spring schedule in the final week of competition with a match against the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Before the matches started, Rice honored its departing seniors, Julie Chao and Rebecca Lin. Head Coach Elizabeth Schmidt said a few words about them and presented each with a photo album chronicling their years on the team.

After that subdued start to the match, the Owls transitioned easily into competition mode. Rice (13-8, 2-2 C-USA) dominated UAB (10-10, 2-4 C-USA), sweeping the Blazers 7-0.

The team began the match in impressive fashion, as both the team of No. 45 sophomore Ana Guzman and Chao in the top doubles position and the team of junior Rebekka H?nle and Lin at the third position swept their opponents with 8-0 wins. Finishing close behind was the team of junior Jessica Jackson and freshman Daniella Trigo, who defeated their opponents 8-1.

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After a commanding job of taking the doubles point, the Owls then readied themselves for the singles matches. In similar mode to the doubles matches, Rice dismantled UAB with ease.

The Owls won all singles matches. No Blazer won more than two sets in any singles match and of the 82 sets played, UAB won only 10, handing Rice the team's most decisive victory of the year. Success was widespread for the Owls, as even sixth-position singles player sophomore Alex Rasch blanked her opponent, winning 6-0, 6-0.

This match was a great way for the team to get ready to head into conference championships, and also a great way for seniors to finish up their Rice tennis careers. In their final regular season matches, Chao and Lin did not lose a point in their doubles matches and only lost two points collectively in their singles matches.

Schmidt was more than satisfied with her team's performance.

"We played very solid, and we were very happy for our seniors that they were able to go out that way," Schmidt said.

The next hurdle for the Rice is the Conference USA Championships, which started yesterday. The Owls are the No. 3 seed in the tournament, with Southern Methodist University (22-3, 6-0 C-USA) as the No. 1 seed and the University of Tulsa (18-5, 3-1 C-USA) as the No. 2 seed. Thanks to their third-place ranking in the tournament, the Owls will earn a bye in the first round and will not play until today.

Rice will face either Tulane University (12-8, 4-2 C-USA), a team they defeated earlier in the year 6-1, or UAB once again in their match today.

The tournament has major implications for the team's postseason hopes. If the Owls win the CUSA tournament, they will earn an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament, which would be the team's first appearance since they won the C-USA championship in 2006.

Just as in college basketball, the women's tennis tournament has 33 at-large bids available in addition to those for the conference champions. These final bids are decided based on national rankings. As of now, Rice is on the bubble of receiving an at-large bid. Based on the latest national rankings, they were No. 41, but these rankings fail to take into account last Saturday's win. Once Rice's defeat of UAB is factored in, they may be ranked high enough for an at-large bid.

"Hopefully we will be coming back this weekend with a conference title," Rasch said. "We have been working and we are prepared for what's to come."

There is also a NCAA tournament for individual players based on national rankings. H?nle, ranked 86 at the moment, has a chance to make it, and the doubles team of Chao and Guzman, ranked 45, has a shot as well.

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