The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Rice
No. 7 Men's Tennis tops Rice, 4-0, advances to NCAA round of 16
05.10.2008 | Men's Tennis
AUSTIN, Texas -- No. 7 Texas (22-5) took the doubles point and picked up singles victories from senior Milan Mihailovic, freshman Ed Corrie and the clincher from junior Miguel Reyes Varela, as the Horns posted a 4-0 win over No. 24 Rice (17-9) Saturday afternoon in the NCAA Tennis Championship round of 32 at UT's Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
Texas, the Big 12 regular season co-champion, advances to the NCAA round of 16 for a third consecutive season.The Horns will resume play in the NCAA Championship on Friday, May 16 in Tulsa, Okla., against an opponent to be determined.
Texas opened the match with wins at the second and third doubles positions to lock up the doubles point.Senior Luis Diaz Barriga and Reyes Varela made short work of Rice's Tobias Scheil and Chong Wang at the second slot, winning by an 8-1 count.Sophomores Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala clinched the doubles point at the third position, where they dealt Bruno Rosa and Filip Zivojinovic an 8-5 defeat.The remaining match at first doubles was suspended.
Mihailovic pushed the Texas lead to 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-0 win at fifth singles over Zivojinovic, and Corrie extended the Longhorns' cushion to 3-0 with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Ralph Knupfer at second singles.With three of the four remaining matches having gone to third sets, Reyes Varela had the chance to clinch the match in two sets, and he ultimately converted the opportunity.
Reyes Varela took the first set off of Rice's Dennis Polyakov at sixth singles, 6-3, before the ensuing set progressed to a tiebreaker.Reyes Varela took a 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker only to see Polyakov take the next six points and nearly push the match to a third set.However, Reyes Varela captured the next three points to even the tally at six before later finishing off Polyakov in the tiebreaker, 10-8, to take the set and the match and clinch the team victory for Texas.
NCAA Men's Tennis Championship - Round of 32
No. 7 Texas 4, No. 24 Rice 0
Doubles - Order of Finish: 2, 3
1. Corrie/Damico (UT) vs. Knupfer/Muller (RU) - 5-5, susp.
2. Diaz Barriga/Reyes Varela (UT) def. Scheil/Wang (RU) - 8-1
3. Kutrovsky/Zavala (UT) def. Rosa/Zivojinovic (RU) - 8-5
Singles - Order of Finish: 5, 3, 6
1. Dimitar Kutrovsky (UT) vs. Bruno Rosa (RU) - 2-6, 6-3, 5-5, susp.
2. Kellen Damico (UT) vs. Christoph Muller (RU) - 7-6 (3), 0-6, 1-2, susp.
3. Ed Corrie (UT) def. Ralph Knupfer (RU) - 6-4, 6-2
4. Luis Diaz Barriga (UT) vs. Chong Wang (RU) - 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, susp.
5. Milan Mihailovic (UT) def. Filip Zivojinovic (RU) - 6-1, 6-0
6. Miguel Reyes Varela (UT) def. Dennis Polyakov (RU) - 6-3, 7-6 (8)
POST-MATCH QUOTES
COACH Michael Center
Rice has a great team that will never go away when you play them.It's always a challenging match when we play the Owls, whether it's here or in Houston, and I give them a lot of credit for their effort.I told our guys that Rice knows us and we know them and that this match would come down to who would put up the better fight and have the most determination out there, especially in the heat today.I'm proud of how we fought out there, and we came ready to play.You have a guy in Dimitar (Kutrovsky) who was down 5-2 in the third and came back to even the set at five.That showed how much fight there is in this team.We've had a great tournament so far, but we really want to take it to the next level in Tulsa.
