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September 15, 2006 > Sports > Owls look to surpass last year’s premature NCAA exit

Owls look to surpass last year’s premature NCAA exit

By Casey Michel | For the Thresher

Coming off a strong showing at last weekend’s 2006 Courtyard by Marriott/Rice Invitational, the men’s tennis team is looking to put last season’s disappointing second-round NCAA tournament loss behind them, focusing this year on a return to both the conference and national limelight. In order to do that, however, they will have fill the void in the lineup left by Robert Searle (Will Rice ‘06) and Tony Haerle (Baker ‘06), the most decorated seniors from last year.

Under head coach Ron Smarr and assistant coach Efe Ustundag, the Owls will try to win their first title in Conference-USA. In Rice’s first C-USA tournament, Rice fell to the University of Tulsa 4-1 in the final match.

“I don’t think it was a surprise,” Ustundag said. “We came out firing in doubles, but then we just went flat. It was a really interesting deal. We went flat across the board. I figured things would be on our side, but it just absolutely came down crashing.”

Ranked 30th at the time, Rice still qualified for the NCAA team tournament, defeating the University of Louisiana-Lafayette 4-1 in the first round. In the second round they faced the Longhorns, just a month after defeating them 4-2 at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium. This time, however, Searle, whose comeback at the No. 1 singles spot made the difference in the previous match, was sidelined with a foot injury, and UT swept the Owls 4-0.

Losing both Searle, who qualified for the NCAA singles tournament in each of his four years at Rice, and Haerle — who paired with him to make the 18th-ranked doubles duo in the country — might seem daunting, but Ustundag (Baker ‘99) said he expects this year’s squad to step up without difficulty.

“I think we are going to raise the expectation a little bit more this year,” Ustundag said. “[Just] making [the NCAA tournament] is not good enough. I think our goal has to be making the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight.”

Leading the Owls toward that goal will be the team’s only two seniors, Ben Harknett, ranked 109th in the Fila/ITA preseason rankings, and Jason Mok. They will be supported by several returning lettermen, including juniors Filip Zivojinovic, Hoony Shin and Ralph Knupfer, who, at 52nd in the preseason polls, is the highest ranked member of the team. Junior Jon Greenberg and sophomore Christoph Muller round out the returning players.

Ustundag said those leaders will determine the team’s success.

“It’s going to be a good combination of players,” he said. “The older guys have seen some success and some heartbreaks, and they’re going to have to lead us. I’m really depending on the upperclassmen to take charge.”

Joining the team this year are three new players, redshirt sophomore Tobias Schell and freshmen Dennis Polyakov and Filip Paroci. Paroci, from Serbia-Montenegro, is already ranked 122nd, having won both the Serbian national championships every year since he was 12 and last year’s Serbian national men’s open.

Harknett said the team is close despite the number of new players.

“Last year we had six guys living together in two apartments, one above the other,” he said. “We were relatively inseparable. I was interested in seeing if it would continue like that [this year], and it really has. Although we’re not living so close now, we’re still close friends … and hopefully that will translate into more success.”

Last weekend, Mok won the A-flight singles consolation at the Rice Invitational. Muller lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to LSU’s Danny Bryan in the championship match of the same bracket. Shin won the consolation of the B-flight singles, defeating Tulsa’s Andy Connelly in straight sets, and Polyakov won the C-flight consolation. In doubles, Mok and Muller took third place in the A-flight, and Zivojinovic teamed with Greenberg to take second in the B-flight.

Harknett said while he has been impressed with the team’s play, Rice will not reach its potential for some time.

“We lost our number one and number three guys, those players who’ve been here for four years,” he said. “But the guys we’ve brought in are looking good, and by no means will this be a transition year. [But] this early in the season it’s just about experimenting.”

Rice hopes to carry last weekend’s success into the Baylor Invitational, which will start Sept. 22 in Waco, Tex. The Owls will face host Baylor, which finished fourth in last year’s team rankings, Texas, which finished third and the University of Louisville, which finished 26th. Rice finished 29th after falling to Texas. Also on tap for the Owls are October’s ITA All-American championships in Tulsa, Okla. and the ITA South-Central Regional Championships in Fort Worth.

Ustundag said he is excited about the season’s possibilities.

“We have four months of practice, competition and … gelling to do,” he said. “I think [the players] really like and respect each other, and I think they’re going to have a lot of fun.”

End of article

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