The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/sports/2005/04/15/womens_tennis_smu_tcu

April 15, 2005 > Sports > Women’s tennis falls at SMU, TCU

Women’s tennis falls at SMU, TCU

By Amber Obermeyer | Thresher Editorial Staff

The women’s tennis team suffered its most disappointing loss of the season Saturday, dropping a 6-1 decision to Western Athletic Conference foe Southern Methodist University. The loss to the unranked Mustangs was the Owls’ first of the season to a team currently ranked outside the top 45.

But Rice remained the top-ranked team in the conference, meaning the Owls will likely receive the top seed at the WAC Championships April 21-23 in Honolulu. SMU jumped ahead of the University of Tulsa in the rankings, so the Mustangs would have to defeat probable second-seed and three-time defending WAC champion Fresno State University in the semifinals for the Owls to have a chance to redeem themselves.

‘We talked about what we need to do differently next time yesterday at practice, and we all said we want to play them again,’ assistant coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. ‘It was their senior day, and they had a lot of energy. They took it to us, but I think if we played them again we would take it to them.’

Junior Medeja Egic said she thinks the Owls are still the team to beat at the WAC tournament because of wins over top-50 Maryland, San Diego State and LSU.

‘You cannot look at just one match to see who’s better,’ Egic said. ‘You have to look at the whole season overall, and we’ve had some very good wins. ’

But before the WAC Championships, 47th-ranked Rice must face No. 34 Texas A&M University tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium. The Aggies rolled to a 7-0 victory over the Owls last year, losing just three sets in the six singles matches. Senior Tracie Chong said she expects the Owls, who feature four new players in their singles and doubles lineups from last year, to fare better this season.

‘The match against A&M last year was at A&M … so I think this year being at home with our fans will make a big difference,’ Chong said. ‘We’re definitely a different team this year, and our level of motivation will be high going into the WAC tournament.’

Before the SMU match, Rice played at Texas Christian University Friday and lost by a 6-1 margin for the second consecutive year. The Owls used the same doubles teams as they did in wins against Southeastern Louisiana University and Abilene Christian March 26, when head coach Roger White and Schmidt changed all three pairings after using the same pairings since Jan. 29.

Despite losing both doubles points last weekend, Schmidt said she was pleased with the team’s overall performance in doubles. Chong and freshman Kimberley Patenaude were especially impressive, she said.

‘We knew Kimberley and Tracie could play together because they played together in the fall, and they were pretty successful then,’ Schmidt said. ‘They came away with a big win against TCU.’

Schmidt said she and White had not yet decided which doubles pairings to use tomorrow against A&M.

‘Now we see we have a lot of different combinations that can do well,’ Schmidt said. ‘I think with any combination we put together, we’re trying to put three teams on the court where have a chance to win all three [matches]. I thought we did that this weekend — we gave ourselves a chance [even though] the doubles point didn’t come our way.’

End of article

Back to top