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March 25, 2005 > Sports > Men’s tennis drops third straight match

Men’s tennis drops third straight match

By Matt McCabe | Thresher Editorial Staff

For the men’s tennis team, coming home to Jake Hess Tennis Stadium was not the remedy necessary to cure its two-match losing streak. The Owls, ranked 26th by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association entering the match, fell 4-3 to then-No. 42 Middle Tennessee State University Saturday.

‘We knew that Middle Tennessee was a tough team,’ assistant coach Efe Ustundag (Baker ‘99) said. ‘They’ve had some good wins and they’re an aggressive team, but I figured playing outdoors at home after being on the road for a few matches would be to our advantage.’ The 2004 Owls also had a three-match losing streak, dropping matches to Oklahoma State, Alabama and Texas A&M after opening the season with 17 consecutive wins. Rice rebounded to win seven consecutive matches, capturing its first WAC title and upsetting LSU in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Against Middle Tennessee State, the Owls got off to a rough start, losing a hard-fought doubles point to the Blue Raiders. After Rice’s top tandem of sophomore Ben Harknett and junior Robert Searle upset then-41st-ranked Kai Schledorn and Brandon Allan 8-3, the Owls had an early leg up. But Middle Tennessee State quickly evened the score as Andreas Siljestrom and Marco Born took down junior Tony Haerle and freshman Filip Zivojinovic 8-3 at the second position, and Anant Sitaram and Greg Pollack triumphed in a tiebreaker over sophomore Jason Mok and junior Rodrigo Gabriel to give Middle Tennessee State the doubles point. In their losses to Tulane, Notre Dame and Middle Tennessee State, the Owls lost the doubles point twice after losing it only once in their first 11 matches. Last year, Rice did not lose a doubles point in 25 regular-season matches.

‘Doubles have always been key for us,’ said Ustundag. ‘I think we are a better team with the doubles point under our belt.’

With an early 1-0 deficit in the dual match, the Owls needed four wins in singles. At the top spot, Searle, ranked 41st nationally, defeated then-55th-ranked Andreas Siljestrom 6-2, 5-7, 7-5. Haerle rebounded from two consecutive singles losses with a convincing straight-set victory over Marco Born 7-5, 6-4 in the second position. Playing at the third spot for the Owls, Harknett continued his rocky spring, dropping to 4-9 on the season with a loss to Kai Schledorn 6-4, 7-6. Zivojinovic endured a loss to Anant Sitaram 6-3, 7-5 at the fourth position. After losing four of his last five matches at the fourth position, freshman Ralph Knupfer was moved to the fifth spot for the match against Middle Tennessee State, and he responded by winning handily over Greg Pollack 6-1, 6-2. Gabriel, who had been 3-0 in singles at the sixth position for the spring, lost to Brandon Allan 6-2, 6-1.

Searle, who has a sparkling 13-1 record in dual matches at the top spot, said he thinks the young team needs to learn how to maintain its focus despite errors.

‘Quite often we don’t put the match away, and then the boys get so down that it ends up affecting them, [causing them to] lose after that,’ Searle said. ‘If they can’t put it away at the time, they’ve got to think about what went wrong and then [recover] later on in the match rather than letting themselves dwell on it.’

Head coach Ron Smarr also said the team is having difficulty closing out matches it should win.

‘We’re not playing well when we are ahead,’ Smarr said. ‘When you’re serving for the match, it’s on your racket.’

Ustundag said he thinks the Owls need to continue to control their matches once they get a lead.

‘It seems like what’s been happening at the critical parts of the matches [is that] we don’t play as aggressively [as we do initially],’ Ustundag said. ‘We expect our opponents to fold rather than having an aggressive mentality.’

The Owls continue to shuffle the bottom three spots of their lineup, as five different players have played in those positions.

‘In the bottom of the lineup, we are deep enough in a sense that we can use the players that are hot and have the luxury of switching players out of the lineup that have been struggling,’ Ustundag said. ‘The next two weeks of practice will show who deserves to play in the bottom spots of the order.’

With the loss to Middle Tennessee State, Rice dropped to 32nd in the ITA rankings, which were generated by a computer this week after coaches voted to determine previous polls. Team captain Searle said he is looking forward to taking on Texas Christian University April 1 at 2 p.m. at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.

‘I’d love to beat TCU,’ Searle said. ‘Hopefully we can take care of business, and hopefully that will get the some of the boys’ confidence back so we can end the season how we want to end it.’

TCU has played a difficult schedule this season. The 39th-ranked Horned Frogs are currently on a six-match losing streak, but several losses have come at the hands of top-10 teams like Florida and Duke. Before coming to Rice, TCU will visit No. 12 Texas Tech and top-ranked Baylor. Last year, the Owls defeated then 11th-ranked TCU 4-3 in a contentious match in Fort Worth.

‘TCU will come and give us a battle,’ Smarr said. ‘We’ve beaten them just one time in the past 24 years and they are just as good [as always].’

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