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February 15, 2008 > Sports > Rosa spurs men’s tennis to easy victories over Arizona, No. 24 Miami

Rosa spurs men’s tennis to easy victories over Arizona, No. 24 Miami

Sophomore runs unbeaten streak in singles to thirteen straight matches as Owls move to 3-0 at Jake Hess this season

By Casey Michel | Thresher Editorial Staff

Continuing a theme from this young season, the men’s tennis team dominated in singles play to easily handle No. 24 University of Miami in a 5-2 win Sunday. The win, Rice’s fifth in a row and third straight over a ranked opponent, came about in dramatic fashion, two days after a 5-2 defeat of unranked University of Arizona at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.

Rice’s rough schedule continues this weekend as the team faces No. 43 Old Dominion University tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Norfolk, Va. The Monarchs are no strangers to good competition, but that is not necessarily a good thing for them — their previous two matches against top-25 teams, No. 20 University of Oklahoma and No. 11 Wake Forest University, both resulted in losses.

Sunday, the Owls travel north to Williamsburg, Va., to square off with the College of William and Mary. The 45th-ranked Tribe are currently riding an impressive hot streak, having won six of their last seven contests, including three against ranked opponents.

Arizona is not in the top 75, however, but the Wildcats still presented their fair share of problems to the Owls. While the duo of junior Tobias Scheil and sophomore Bruno Rosa notched an 8-4 win at No. 3, senior Filip Zivojinovic and sophomore Chong Wang struggled against Bruno Alcala and Ravid Hazi in the Owls’ 8-3 loss at No. 2. At the top of the lineup, senior Ralph Knupfer and Christoph Muller battled Claudio Christen and Jay Goldman into a tiebreaker, when the Wildcat duo outlasted the Owls with a 9-8 (4) win to take the doubles point.

Despite his loss in doubles, No. 45 Knupfer would not be denied in singles and dropped only one game in his win over Peter Zimmer at No. 3 to even the score. Rosa continued his dominance in singles play, putting No. 37 Christen away 7-6 (10), 7-5 at the top of the lineup to give the Owls a lead they would not relinquish. After Wang and fellow sophomore Dennis Polyakov took their matches in straight sets, Zivojinovic shook off his doubles loss to drop Andres Carrasco 7-6 (5), 6-2 to give the Owls their second win over an unranked opponent this season.

The Owls’ contest with Miami was their third matchup with a top 25-ranked opponent in two weeks. Most teams might have given less than a full effort, but with Knupfer and Muller down 7-5 to the No. 30 pair of Vallverdu and Sundberg, Rice was in the match. On set point, the Hurricanes double-faulted, giving Rice breathing room. However, much to the chagrin of the Owls, the chair umpire reversed the call and awarded the Hurricanes the doubles point.

But instead of rolling over, the Owls started a resilient comeback that took the Hurricanes by surprise. Knupfer led the charge into singles with a 6-1, 6-3 throttling of Vivek Subramanian to knot up the score at 1-1. Wang then continued his strong play as he grabbed his third-consecutive straight-set singles victory, this time against Keith Crowley by a score of 6-3, 6-2.

The Hurricanes were not done, as Sundberg handed Zivojinovic a straight-set loss to even the score at 2. However, Muller gave the momentum back to Rice with a 6-1, 7-5 win over No. 97 Rosenfeld for his first victory over a ranked foe.

Then, in what can only be characterized as a colossal upset, Rosa defeated Vallverdu, who is ranked seventh in the nation. Vallverdu had already beaten the No. 8 and No. 4 players in the nation before running into Rosa, who tallied his third win over a top 100 challenger this season. After grabbing an easy 6-2 win in the first set, the Brazilian native found himself down 5-4 in the second set. Rosa, who was named Conference USA Player of the Week Tuesday, promptly rattled off wins in three straight games to beat Vallverdu and clinch the contest for the Owls.

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