The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, February 27, 2009 Page: 16 of 20
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16 SPORTS
the Rice Thresher
Friday, February 27,2009
Women deliver rout at home after road struggles
Freshman Ana Guzman attacks the ball in a home match against Lee
College on Feb. 25. Next, the Owls will take to the road in matches
against Western Michigan, Ohio State and Louisville before finish-
ing up the regular season with a six-match homestand in prepara-
tion for the C-USA Tournament.
by Prem Ramkumar
Thresher Staff
While the Seattle, Wash., rain was
washing away the women's tennis
team's chances at good weather, the
competition was washing away Rice's
chances at a successful road swing.
The 75th-ranked Owls fell to 8-4 this
past weekend at the Nordstrom Ten-
nis Center after a pair of losses against
then-40th-ranked Sacramento State
and then-34th-ranked University of
Washington.
Sacramento State, undefeated on
the year, came into the match with
momentum after pulling off an upset
against Washington the day before.
With a dastardly combination of ex-
perience and talent, the Hornets took
it to the Owls in a 5-2 decision. Junior
Julie Chao and freshman Alex Ra-
sch managed to secure the only two
points of the match with straight-set
wins over Aileen Tsan and Joyce Mar-
tinez, respectively.
Though the match did not look
close on paper, the Owls were a tie-
breaker, a three-set match and a
doubles point win away from an im-
pressive upset. Junior Rebecca Lin
lost a 3-6, 6-1, 5-7 decision to Clar-
isse Baca, and sophomore Jessica
Jackson dropped a 6-7 (4), 3-6 match
to Luba Schifris at the No. 3 singles
spot, and the Hornets took doubles
despite Rice's nice win at No. 1
behind junior Julie Chao and fresh-
man Ana Guzman's strong play.
"It was great that we were close,
but that's not good enough," head
coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. "We
can take confidence in that, but I don't
believe in moral victories. We had situ-
ations we didn't take... We cannot give
them an inch, or they will take it. If we
are up, we have to learn to finish them
off. It was a very close match. It's great
to be right in there with those teams,
but we aren't satisfied with being right
in there anymore."
The next day, the Owls took on an
even higher ranked opponent in the
Huskies, looking to atone for their
previous day's loss to the Hornets. As
a result, the Huskies came out firing
and caught the Rice off guard in a 7-0
rout. In a completely dominant per-
formance, Washington did not give
up a single set in the entire match.
"We did not perform our best, but
it was a great taste of what compe-
tition is to come," Jackson said. "It
has made us refocus our goals and
[made us] even more determined to
improve and work harder than any
other team every time we step out
onto the court."
The Owls returned to action back
at Jake Hess Stadium on Wednesday
against Lee College, where they once
again demonstrated their resilience
with a 7-0 rout. In a flip of their match
against Washington, Rice swept the
doubles point and did not drop a sin-
gle singles match.
Next, Rice travels to Kalamazoo,
Mich., where it takes on No. 61 West-
ern Michigan University tomorrow.
The following Tuesday, the team will
head to Columbus, Oh., against the
highly-touted 34th-ranked Ohio State
University squad.
In the next ten matches the Owls
will face six ranked opponents. Wins
against any number of them could
launch them towards their goals of a
conference championship and NCAA
Tournament berth.
"We have learned a lot from this
past week of tennis," Schmidt said.
"We learned how to play indoors for
the first time this year. The points
are faster. Our serves are faster. We
have to give ourselves less margin of
error to be successful. We are play-
ing indoors again this weekend, so
we have to learn to adjust. I am glad
that we got exposure though — it will
definitely help us for our next two
matches indoor."
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Women's Tennis 2009
Date
Opponent
Location
2/28
Western Michigan
Kalamazoo, Mich.
3/03
Ohio State
Columbus, Ohio
3/W
Louisville
Louisville, Ken.
3/21
South Alabama
Jake Hess Tennis Stadium
3/27
UTPA
jake Hess Tennis Stadium
3/28
Tulsa
jake Hess Tennis Stadium
4/05
UNT
Jake Hess Tennis Stadium
4/11
Northwestern State
lake Hess Tennis Stadium
4/12
SMU
Jake Hess Tennis Stadium
4/16-
4/19
C-USA Tournament
Jake Hess Tennis Stadium
5/08-
5/10
NCAA Tournament
TBD
t
: < -W'
m
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Michel, Casey. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, February 27, 2009, newspaper, February 27, 2009; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443030/m1/16/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.