Men’s tennis, ranked 30th, defeats No. 32 Minnesota
Senior Harknett returns from injury to lead Owls to victories over Bulldogs, Gophers
Boosted by the return of 50th-ranked senior Ben Harknett, the men’s tennis team knocked off Drake University and 32nd-ranked University of Minnesota soundly in last weekend’s dual-match play. After missing the first month of the semester with a hamstring injury, Harknett finally returned to action, and his two match victories helped the 30th-ranked Owls move to 5-0 on the season.
Continuing its tour of nationally ranked opponents, Rice hosts 22nd-ranked University of North Carolina today and 65th-ranked Vanderbilt University Sunday at the Downtown Club at the Met. Both matches start at 12:30 p.m. Assistant Coach Efe Ustundag (Baker ‘99) said these matches will test the team’s determination and help its national ranking.
“I feel like we should come out of this weekend with a couple of good wins, based on what I’ve seen so far,” Ustundag said. “If we make a statement, maybe that will turn some heads.”
The Owls opened last Friday with two doubles wins against Drake, the defending Missouri Valley Conference Champions. Harknett, in his first match of the spring season, paired with freshman Filip Paroci to seal the point with a tight 8-6 victory over the Bulldogs’ Sergi Vila and Guilherme Marsiglia. Rice continued its season-long dominance in singles, winning all but one of the matches in straight sets. Harknett held off Vila 6-4, 7-6 at No. 1 for the first Rice point, and aside from Paroci’s tiebreak loss at No. 2, the Owls were able to easily close out the Bulldogs. Rice took the team match 6-1.
“[Harknett] was a bit rusty, but he played well,” Ustundag said. “I really liked his concentration on the court, and although he let it get away for a couple of games, he was really focused the entire weekend.”
In their next match, the Owls faced their first ranked opponent of the year in host Minnesota. The Gophers opened the match by taking the doubles point with a pair of closely contested wins. Junior Ralph Knupfer and sophomore Tobias Scheil fell to Minnesota’s Raoul Schwark and Maikey Kantar 9-8 at No. 1, and Harknett and Paroci lost at No. 3 by the same score, forcing Rice to stage a run from behind.
Harknett delivered the first step of the comeback, defeating 77th-ranked Andres Osorio 6-4, 6-4 at No. 1. With the win, Harknett redeemed himself for a straight set loss to Osorio in Rice’s last meeting with the Gophers in March 2006. Ustundag said he was impressed with Harknett’s resiliency and maturity.
“He played remarkably well considering he hadn’t played all semester,” Ustundag said. “I really think his leadership on and off the court is going to be key to the team’s success this year.”
Paroci followed Harknett’s performance with a win over another ranked opponent, this time upsetting 58th-ranked Raoul Schwark. This was the second victory in as many weeks over a top-60 opponent for the freshman, who continues to contribute more than expected.
The Owls took the rest of the singles matches, downing the Gophers by another 6-1 score. Head coach Ron Smarr said he was proud of the players performing well in front of a vocal Minnesota crowd.
“We’re still not hitting on all cylinders yet,” Smarr said. “But I’m very pleased with [the performance], because that’s a tough place to win a match.”
Despite the final results, some of the contests were very tight until the end. The Owls’ inability to close out matches without difficulty seemed to be the main flaw of their performance, at least from the coaches’ point of view.
“We need to stay on the people and not let them back into a match they don’t have any business being in,” Ustundag said. “I think that’s going to be the difference between us being a good team or a great team. If we take care of that, I really like how we look.”
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