Tulane University
Rice
Women's Tennis Falls To No. 40 Rice, 6-1
Feb 28, 2010 | Women's Tennis
Feb. 28, 2010
NEW ORLEANS - Freshman Emma Levy posted a 6-4, 6-2 win over Julie Chao on Court 2, but it was not enough as the Tulane University women's tennis team dropped a 6-1 contest to No. 40 and Conference USA foe Rice Sunday afternoon at the Goldring Tennis Center.
Two Green Wave players rallied from first-set losses to force a third frame, but both fell on each occasion. The loss was the first of the year at home for Tulane, which falls to 5-4 on the year. Rice, meanwhile, improves to 8-3.
"I'm really proud of the girls today," Tulane head coach Terri Sisk said. "Sometimes 6-1 scores can be lopsided and sometimes they're a lot closer than they look. Today was one of the latter. We had two courts go to third set tie-breaks, and we didn't come out on the winning side of either of those. Today was a great effort. It was a fun day for collegiate tennis. You had a lot of people in the stands. You had a lot of effort on both sides.
"My hat is off to Rice. They're a great program. It's fun for us to know that they're in our conference because it just makes our conference more legit in the ITA rankings. I thought we did a good job today, but they exposed some more weaknesses. That's what it's always about - finding out what your weaknesses are and doing a good job to correct those."
The tone for the day was set early on as the Owls swept the doubles point. The 31st-ranked Owls tandem of Julie Chao and Ana Guzman defeated Tulane's Levy and Mariam Kurdadze, 8-4, while the tandem of Rebekka Hanle and Rebecca Lin clinched the point on Court 3 with an 8-6 decision over Marcela Fonseca and Elizabeth Hamlin. Rice made it a sweep when Jessica Jackson and Alex Rasch finished off Lindsay Dvorak and Emma Helistén, 9-7, on Court 2.
The momentum of the Owls' doubles win carried over into singles play where Lin (6-2, 6-0) and Jackson (6-1, 6-1) - the No. 100 singles player in the nation in the most recent ITA rankings - allowed just two points each in their respective wins over Helistén and Hamlin. Danny Trigo clinched the match with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Caroline Gerber on Court 6.
With the match already decided, Levy hung tough to earn her win over Chao. Kurdadze and Dvorak, meanwhile, rallied to make things interesting. After dropping her opening set to No. 63 Hanle on Court 1, 6-4, Kurdadze answered with a 6-4 win of her own in the second set and rallied back from a 9-6 deficit in the super tie-breaker to tie the frame at 9-all. Hanle wound up scoring the next two points, however, and won 11-9.
Dvorak, meanwhile, fell in the first set, 6-3, to Guzman on Court 4 but rallied back to tie the contest with a 7-6 win in the second stanza. The come-back attempt, however, was for naught as Guzman doubled-up Dvorak in the super tie-breaker, 10-5, to bring the match to an end.
"It's interesting to stand here and realize that on all of our courts we had all freshmen and sophomores," Sisk said. "We played a very experienced Rice team today but at some point, you quit saying, `Hey, we're only two years old.' Yes we are but at some point, you have to be able to turn some of these matches around and do things right.
"When you're up a set or up a break, you have to be able to close some of these matches out. Shot selection for us is still a little bit weak. We still try to do something at the wrong time in the point. When we turn those issues around, you're going to see 4-3 matches in our favor."
The Green Wave continue their four-game home stand on Saturday, March 6 when they play host to Kansas at noon. From there, Tulane will battle Southern Illinois on Wednesday, March 10, at 2 p.m. Admission to every home Tulane tennis event is free.
No. 40 RICE OWLS (8-3) DEF. TULANE GREEN WAVE (5-4) - 6-1
SINGLES
No. 1: No. 63 Rebekka Hanle (Rice) def. Mariam Kurdadze (Tulane) - 6-4, 4-6, 11-9
No. 2: Emma Levy (Tulane) def. Julie Chao (Rice) - 6-4, 6-2
No. 3: No. 100 Jessica Jackson (Rice) def. Elizabeth Hamlin (Tulane) - 6-1, 6-1
No. 4: Ana Guzman (Rice) def. Lindsay Dvorak (Tulane) - 6-3, 6-7, 10-5
No. 5: Rebecca Lin (Rice) def. Emma Helistén (Tulane) - 6-2, 6-0
No. 6: Danny Trigo (Rice) def. Caroline Gerber (Tulane) - 6-4, 6-0
DOUBLES
No. 1: No. 31 Julie Chao / Ana Guzman (Rice) def. Mariam Kurdadze / Emma Levy (Tulane) - 8-4
No. 2: Jessica Jackson / Alex Rasch (Rice) def. Lindsay Dvorak / Emma Helistén (Tulane) - 9-7
No. 3: Rebekka Hanle / Rebecca Lin (Rice) def. Marcela Fonseca / Elizabeth Hamlin (Tulane) - 8-6
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Players Mentioned
