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September 29, 2006 > Sports > Harknett upsets No. 4 Poerschke

Harknett upsets No. 4 Poerschke

Men’s tennis suffers early defeats at Baylor Invitational

By Casey Michel | Thresher Editorial Staff

Highlighted by the senior Ben Harknett scoring the biggest Rice upset so far this season, the Rice men’s tennis team displayed its potential at last weekend’s Baylor Invitational in Waco, Tex. Led by Harknett, sophomore Christoph Mueller and freshman Dennis Polyakov, the Owls competed against some of the top players in the country, including three ranked in the Fila/ITA Collegiate Top Ten.

Going into the tournament, both players and coaches were interested in seeing how the team would take the stiff competition before the ITA All-American championships start Oct. 5.

“My expectations were to see where we are compared to the rest of the country,” assistant coach Efe Ustundag (Baker ‘99) said. “It was [a tune-up], but in the meantime, if you can grab a couple of wins against nationally ranked opponents, it’s not going to hurt.”

Harknett did just that in singles, pulling one of the more memorable Rice upsets in recent years. Ranked 104th nationally, Harknett had to face No. 4 Lars Poerschke of Baylor in his second-round A-flight draw. After coasting over Louisiana Lafayette’s Piotre Banas in the first round, Harknett stepped up his play, defeating Poerschke — at one point last season the number one player in the country — in straight sets. Harknett’s momentum subsided, however, and he proceeded to lose the next day to 118th-ranked Robbye Poole of Ole Miss, 6-1, 6-1.

“It was great for [Ben] to see that he could compete with the best … and certainly he is capable of beating the top in the country,” Ustundag said. “But he is going to have to do it week-in and week-out in order to be a force.”

Mueller fell short of matching Harknett’s performance, losing to Radford University’s 22nd-ranked Martin Sayer in the first round of the A-Flight. He rebounded in the consolation bracket, defeating Banas in the semifinals before beating New Mexico State’s Raman Stoisanljevic in the championship.

“I had a tough draw against [Sayer] in the first round … and I was a little disappointed [with the loss],” Muller said. “I knew I had to pick it up in the consolation.”

Polyakov took almost the same route in the B-flight, falling to Wichita State’s Boris Gubic in the round of 32 and advancing to defeat the University of Miami’s J.C. Whitner 9-8 in the pro-set — one set played to eight points instead of three sets played to six — consolation final.

In other singles matches, both 52nd-ranked junior Ralph Knupfer and 122nd-ranked freshman Filip Paroci lost in the A-Flight round of 32. Knupfer was upset by Wichita State’s unranked Goran Vujaklija in straight sets, and Paroci fell to Mississippi’s 8th-ranked Erling Tveit.

Doubles proved to be the low point of the weekend, as none of the Owls’ pairings advanced to the final rounds. In A-flight doubles, Knupfer and fellow junior Filip Zivojinovic fell in the quarterfinals, as did Muller and senior partner Jason Mok. Polyakov and junior Jon Greenberg battled their way into the semifinals of the B-flight before falling to Herrera/Mattar of UTA, 8-6. But the rest of the squad didn’t play up to par.

“I am not very pleased with doubles,” Ustundag said. “We need players to not just go through the motions on doubles and instead really concentrate on singles. I just don’t think we played with enough urgency and firepower.”

The successes in the singles draws were tempered by the lack thereof on the doubles courts, where the team is missing the notable doubles partnerships it has had in the past. Robert Searle (Will Rice ‘06) and Tony Haerle (Baker ‘06) anchored last year’s doubles squad, and William (Lovett ‘04) and Richard (Baker ‘04) Barker were the most decorated tandem in Rice history. Rice will have to find some players capable of providing a strong base in doubles, something Ustundag said is a work in progress.

“We played well, but we ran into situations where we couldn’t close out matches [or] we couldn’t stay mentally or physically tough throughout the whole match,” Ustundag said, “[but] I saw that we were certainly as talented as anybody out there.”

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