Men’s tennis begins season with success
Even without the help of its two top returning singles players, the men’s tennis team dominated the season-opening Crowne Plaza Rice Invitational at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium last weekend. This weekend, the Owls will look to sustain that success at the Crimson Tide Championships in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Seniors Robert Searle and Tony Haerle, the team’s number one and two singles players will participate in their first tournament of the season, and junior Ben Harknett will join them.
Searle enters the tournament ranked 24th in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, and he and Harknett rank 21st in doubles. Haerle is ranked 105th in singles. The three will face players from University of Alabama and other schools. Alabama finished last season ranked 56th, and returns 32nd-ranked Joseph Jung to a strong lineup.
Assistant coach Efe Ustundag (Baker ‘99) said the Crimson Tide Championships, the Texas Invitational Sept. 23-25 and other future tournaments will prepare the Owls for the ITA South Central Championships Oct. 21-25 in College Station, Texas.
“We want to peak at the right time, which for us is the end of October at the regional tournament,” Ustundag said. “So all the tournaments between now and then are in preparation for that one. For this first tournament the guys came out fired up, and hopefully they’ll be able to carry this on throughout the fall and the rest of the year.”
Rice won four of six possible bracket championships at the Rice Invitational and had at least one player reach the finals of five brackets. Both the B- and C-flight singles brackets featured all-Rice finals, as sophomores Ralph Knupfer and Hoony Shin defeated senior Rodrigo Gabriel and junior Jason Mok, respectively. In the D flight, senior Take Morita defeated Louisiana State University’s Will Lefevre in three sets to win his first career flight victory, and sophomore Jon Greenberg took fourth place.
“We didn’t really have any disappointment,” Ustundag said. “We saw what we were hoping to get out [of] Ralph, Hoony and the rest — everyone from the B and C flights, in fact.”
In doubles, the team of Harknett and Shin took second place in the A flight, falling to LSU’s 27th-ranked Dan Bryan and Colt Gatson in a nail-biting tiebreaker. Harknett defeated Gatson in A-flight singles play, but lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Dirk Britzen from South Florida.
“I think as a team we did a really good job,” Shin said. “We pulled out a lot of close matches; we weren’t used to doing that last year — last year we just let down whenever we got to that step.”
Sophomore Filip Zivojinovic and Knupfer took third place in A-flight doubles, and the team of Gabriel and Mok defeated Brent Wilkins and Alberto Larregola of Virginia Tech to take the B-flight crown. Greenberg and Morita finished in fifth place.
Other sports stories
- DiSesa leads youthful team into Conference USA
- Owls to play No. 2 Texas Saturday
- Rose Bowl trip ends in 63-21 blowout
- Sid beats young Will Rice team 27-0
- Soccer loses to Nebraska in first road game
- Sports Notebook
- UCLA loss evokes high school memories
- Volleyball finishes 2-1 at UTSA Tournament
News
- Boniuk Center to host religious tolerance talks
- Dalai Lama to speak on tolerance, compassion
- Faculty Senate sets 2006-'07 calendar
- Faculty Senate to consider English Comp Exam changes
- Leebron discusses Call to Conversation at SA forum
- Nanotech book written by grad student
- Spiritual guide, peace activist, Hollywood icon
- Tulane students attend orientation
Arts & Entertainment
- Conceptually brilliant exhibit concentrates on culture
- Film offers raw, ultra-violent look at 'Vengeance'
- On my 'Sweet Sixteen,' I'll do what I want!