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March 31, 2006 > Sports > Men’s tennis wins Rice Invitational

Men’s tennis wins Rice Invitational

By Dylan Farmer | Thresher Editorial Staff

With a 5-2 victory over 43rd-ranked Texas Tech University Sunday, the men’s tennis team clinched the overall victory for the seventh time in ten years at the Hyatt Regency Downtown/Rice Invitational, held last weekend at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.

For his 3-0 record at the tournament, senior Tony Haerle won Conference USA player of the week.

“I think that when we were losing at the beginning of the season, I was trying to do my best at practice, and I knew that eventually we were going to win again,” Haerle said. “Right now, mentally I’m very strong. I’ve had some tough matches, but I’ve been able to pull through and win them.”

Now riding a seven-match winning streak, the Owls play ranked teams in five of their six remaining matches, starting tomorrow with a road match against 27th-ranked Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

“We’ve still got our best tennis ahead,” head coach Ron Smarr said. “We’re going to have to play extremely well to beat any of the teams we’ve got left.”

TCU has lost four of its last seven matches — all against top-40 teams — but they defeated 17th-ranked Texas A&M and came within one set of upsetting 7th-ranked Baylor. The Horned Frogs’ top singles player, Andrei Mlendea, was crucial in those matches, defeating both A&M’s eighth-ranked Jerry Makowski and Baylor’s then fourth-ranked Lars Poerschke at No. 1 singles.

Senior Robert Searle said playing in a hostle environment will be difficult.

“Last time we went [to Fort Worth] we dominated TCU, and they weren’t pleased about it,” he said. “So I imagine they’ll be trying to make up for that this year. Hopefully the boys can focus on the tennis, instead of the other things.”

Last Friday, the Owls opened the Rice Invitational with a 6-1 win over Purdue University. Rice started the day slowly, dropping the doubles point with losses at No. 2 and No. 3, but rebounded strongly in singles, winning all six matches in straight sets. Searle, ranked 35th, provided the most dominating performance, overpowering the Boilermakers’ Colin Foster 6-1, 6-0 at the top spot. Junior Ben Harknett followed with a 6-4, 6-0 victory at No. 2 and sophomore Ralph Knupfer won 6-0, 6-4 at No. 3. Haerle, sophomore Filip Zivojinovic and freshman Christoph Muller rounded out the scoring.

On Saturday, the Owls defeated the University of South Florida 6-1 for their second match win of the weekend. Searle and Haerle again provided a win for Rice, and South Florida forfeited the No. 2 match to Knupfer and Zivojinovic to give the Owls the doubles victory. In singles, Muller dropped his No. 5 match in three sets, but the loss was offset by a South Florida forfeit at No. 6. The Bulls’ 28th-ranked Dirk Britzen did not play, and the Owls won the remaining four spots to take the team victory, setting up the Sunday championship match with Texas Tech.

Although they dropped a close No. 1 doubles match 9-8 to the Red Raiders, the Owls rebounded with wins at two and three to take the doubles point. Searle took the victory against Adrian Prpic at the top singles spot, and Knupfer won at No. 3. Haerle clinched the victory with his win at No. 4. Muller also scored for the Owls at No. 6.

“Obviously things have picked up a bit since the horrific start of the season,” Searle said. “Mainly, I think that confidence is higher than it was. The boys are feeling good about their games. When the situation comes to it, we’ll feel good enough to take the chances.”

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