Men's Tennis posts decisive 5-2 victory over Rice
AUSTIN, Texas -- The 39th-ranked University of Texas men's tennis team posted a decisive 5-2 victory over No. 33 Rice on Friday evening at Penick-Allison Tennis Center. The Longhorns swept doubles and won four singles matches en route to the victory. Texas improves to 10-7 overall, while Rice falls to 12-7.
Texas struck first with wins in all three doubles matches. The 50th-ranked tandem of junior Callum Beale (Adelaide, Australia) and freshman Travis Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan.) upset the 33rd-ranked duo of Ben Harknett and Robert Searle, 8-5, at the top spot, while sophomore Hubert Chodkiewicz (Corpus Christi, Texas) and junior Roger Gubser (Laredo, Texas) defeated Tony Haerle and Filip Zivojinovic, 8-6, at the second. In the No. 3 contest, freshman Luis Diaz Barriga (Cordoba, Mexico) and sophomore Garrett Snyder (Newport Beach, Calif.) rallied from a 7-5 deficit to take the next four games and the 9-7 victory over Rodrigo Gabriel and Ralph Knupfer. The Longhorn duo recorded their third straight win and improved to 10-4 on the dual season. First off the court in singles was freshman Milan Mihailovic (Nis, Serbia), who defeated Zivojinovic at the third spot, 7-6, 6-3. Rice then answered with a win at the bottom of the lineup where Chodkiewicz dropped a 6-3, 6-3 decision to Knupfer. Gubser, ranked 65th nationally, gave Texas a 3-1 lead after he defeated Harknett in a second set tiebreaker, 6-3, 7-6, at the No. 4 spot. The junior is now 25-11 overall and 9-6 in dual action. Rice again had an answer for Texas at the top of the lineup where No. 25-ranked Searle needed three sets to hold off Helgeson. The feisty freshman was looking for the upset but came up short in the third set tiebreaker, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6. The match was decided at No. 5 singles where Barriga split the first two sets with Gabriel, 7-6, 4-6, before blanking him in the third, 6-0. In the final match of the evening, Beale, ranked 36th nationally, lost the first set to Haerle in a tiebreaker, 6-7, but came back to take the second, 6-1. It was the decisive third set where Beale rallied from a 5-2 deficit to take the match at 7-5, and snap his five-match losing streak. The Texas men return to action on Sunday, April 17 when they host Nebraska at Penick-Allison Tennis Center. First serve is set for 1 p.m. Singles (Order of finish: 3, 6, 4, 1, 5, 2) Doubles (Order of finish: 1, 2, 3)
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