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September 30, 2005 > Sports > Sports Notebook

Sports Notebook

Men’s tennis looks to regroup in Tulsa

After a stellar performance at the season-opening Crowne Plaza Rice Invitational, the men’s tennis team faltered slightly two weeks ago at the Crimson Tide Fall Championships. The Owls had players reach the semi-finals of the A-flight doubles and singles brackets, but fell short of their previous success.

This week, the Owls hope to improve at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. The championships feature several top players from around the country, including Virginia’s 12th-ranked Somdev Devvarman, who defeated 24th-ranked senior Robert Searle in the first round of the 2005 NCAA tournament.

Next week’s All-American tournament, and the subsequent regional championships Oct. 22-25 at College Station, Texas, should set the tone for the remainder of the fall season and the spring.

“Our main goal is to peak at regionals, at the end of October,” assistant coach Efe Ustundag (Baker ‘99) said. “From what I saw, I think we still have to progress in conditioning, among other things. I’m looking at all of these tournaments as practice sets, practice matches. I’m not too concerned with the results — just [with] what we need to improve.”

Ustundag said this weekend’s tournament should help the team develop, especially as the Owls face increasingly tougher opponents.

“The guys need these matches for part of their training,” Ustundag said. “We can’t create the sort of pressure and intensity at practice [that comes from] playing people from all over the country. We need match play to build confidence, to build experience [and] to continue our progress.”

In Alabama, Searle and junior Ben Harknett lost in the quarterfinals, and top-seeded Searle was upset by unseeded Ivan Bjelica. In the doubles bracket, the 21st-ranked duo lost to 57th-ranked Jonathus Sucupira and Sam Chang from Florida State in the semifinals.

“I don’t think I had a great performance in my last singles match or my last doubles match,” Harknett said. “But overall, especially doubles-wise, we did OK. It was sort of an indifferent weekend. There were no big results, but there were no bad losses.”

— Dylan Farmer

Women’s tennis turns heads in Knoxville

The women’s tennis team sprinted out of the gates at its season-opening St. Mary’s Fall Classic two weeks ago in Knoxville, Tenn.

The doubles duo of senior Blair DiSesa and freshman Alanna Rodgers began the successes for the Owls, defeating the University of Kentucky’s ninth-ranked Kim Coventry and Julie Schwenk 8-4 in the first round of flight one doubles play. However, the duo stumbled in their subsequent match, losing to eventual champions Barbara Orlay and Alejandra Guerra of North Carolina State University in the second round.

Sophomore Dominique Karas rallied from a one-set deficit to overcome Jenna Loeb from William and Mary in the finals of flight five singles play. Karas later defeated both Kentucky’s Liis Sober and Tennessee’s Stephanie Harris in straight sets en route to her championship-match victory.

In the top singles flight, DiSesa pulled off a stunning upset, defeating 15th-ranked Coventry 6-3, 6-3 in opening-round singles play before falling to Orlay in the second round. Also, sophomore Christine Dao rebounded from an opening-round loss to win the flight four singles consolation championship, beating Shannon Moore of Furman in straight sets. And senior Amy Cao won the flight seven consolation crown.

With an extra week of rest after last weekend’s Rice Classic was cancelled, the Owls now will head to Winston Salem, North Carolina this weekend to compete in the Wake Forest Deacon Classic, which features 44th-ranked Ashlee Davis and the 26th-ranked Demon Deacons.

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