Searle, Haerle hope to go out with C-USA crown
After spending the summer recovering from last year’s loss to the University of Texas in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, the men’s tennis team opens its fall season with the Crowne Plaza Rice Invitational this weekend at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium. The team returns every contributing player from last year’s squad, including seniors Robert Searle and Tony Haerle and junior Ben Harknett, who played the top three singles spots for the Owls last year.
Searle, last year’s Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year, finished the season ranked 51st in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association after losing to Virginia’s Somdev Devvarman in the first round of the NCAA singles championship. Searle and partner Harknett finished 55th in the nation in the doubles rankings, after an upset of then-60th-ranked Callum Beale and Travis Helgeson from UT in NCAA team play.
“I’m expecting a lot from our seniors, especially at the top of the lineup,” assistant coach Efe Ustundag (Baker ‘99) said. “Robert and Tony finished the year on not as good a note as they could have. Hopefully this year we can keep it together for the whole year, and keep up the productivity from the top of the lineup, and that will pave the way for the rest of the team to follow.”
Many players will compete for playing time at the other three singles positions, including seniors Take Morita, Roland Robb and Rodrigo Gabriel, junior Jason Mok and sophomores Ralph Knupfer and Filip Zivojinovic. Zivojinovic partnered with Haerle for the majority of last season at the second doubles spot.
“We had some very good performances from lower in the lineup at the end of the year,” Ustundag said. “If we can keep that up [this season], I really think we’re going to be a heck of a team.”
The 2004-‘05 season was lackluster compared to the previous year, when the Owls amassed a 24-4 record and reached the NCAA Round of 16. The team had to adjust to the loss of William (Lovett ‘04) and Richard Barker (Baker ‘04), the two most decorated tennis players in Rice tennis history.
“During the season there … was no consistency to our results,” Harknett said. “Toward the end, we got that sorted out. We finished the season pretty well compared to the rest of the year.”
The Owls finished last year 38th in the ITA team rankings, a mark they hope to improve on with experience this season.
“I think if we were to say that last year was an adjustment period, then this year we’re really going to be able to excel,” Ustundag said. “I think there were some doubts around the country, especially after the Barker brothers retired — are we going to be as good, are we going to get back up to the top 10 as we were two years ago — and the answer is yes, we will get back up there. I think this year we should be in the top 10 without even bringing anybody in.”
Harknett said the team will benefit from increased familiarity this year.
“[Returning the entire lineup] is definitely good from a team chemistry point of view,” Harknett said. “Doubles partnerships are probably going to stay the same, which obviously helps — you can build on that.”
The only noteworthy change for the Owls this year will be their move to Conference USA from the WAC. Three of the 12 C-USA teams in the conference finished last year with national rankings, including the University of Memphis (73), University of Tulsa (48), and Tulane University (20), but Ustundag said he expects the Owls to contend for a conference title.
“[Conference USA] is going to be a very competitive tennis conference,” Ustundag said, “but I don’t think it’s going to be too [different] from the WAC.”
In C-USA, as with the WAC, the only official conference matches are at the conference tournament, so the Owls will play a similar schedule to years past.
“We always play whoever we want to play on our schedule, so the only difference will be … not going back to Hawaii for the WAC Championships,” Searle said.
Louisiana State University, Virginia Tech University and the university of South Florida will join the Owls at this weekend’s tournament. LSU finished 10th in the rankings last year and returns 74th-ranked Mark Growcott.
“[All the players] have done a good job of practicing and competing all summer long, so I don’t think it’s a question of us not being ready for [the tournament] or anything like that,” Ustundag said. “It’s going to be a test. We’re going to get a lot of ideas about where we are conditionally and what we need to work on from here on out. It’s a good way to start a season.”
Because of NCAA rules limiting the number of tournaments for all players, Searle and Haerle will not play this weekend, allowing younger players to gain experience.
“This weekend, from our team, I’m really expecting good things from Ben Harknett, sophomores Hoony Shin, Filip and Ralph,” Ustundag said. “I’m really looking forward to these next four months to improve everybody’s game. We should have a good outing.”
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