East Carolina University
Rice
No. 22 Rice Blanks Pirates In C-USA Tourney
April 18, 2008 | Men's Tennis
April 18, 2008
DALLAS, Texas - Second-seeded Rice, ranked 22nd nationally in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Poll, recorded a 5-0 victory over No. 7 seed East Carolina Friday evening during quarterfinal play of the 2008 Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship at Turpin Tennis Stadium on the campus of Southern Methodist University.
The Owls won the doubles point and followed with straight-set singles victories at the No. 2, 1, 4 and 3 positions to earn the sweep.
Tobias Scheil and Chong Wang handed ECU's duo of Aleksey Kochetov and Henrik Skalmerud an 8-5 loss at the No. 2 slot for RU's first win of the day. Dennis Polyakov and Bruno Rosa ended doubles action minutes later with an 8-6 victory over Bryan Oakley and Stephen Whitwell at No. 3 to stake the Owls to a 1-0 lead.
Rice's Christoph Muller, who entered tourney play with a national singles rank of No. 50, opened singles play with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Henrique Viana at No. 2 before No. 15 Rosa and Wang followed with 6-4, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-4 wins over Jaroslav Horvath and Kochetov at the No. 1 and 4 positions, respectively. Ralph Knupfer closed out the Owls' scoring with a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Whitwell at the No. 3 slot.
East Carolina concluded its season with a 13-12 record, its first winning ledger since 2004. Rice (16-7) advances to face No. 3 SMU in the second of two semifinals matches Saturday.
No. 2 RICE 5, No. 7 EAST CAROLINA 0
Singles Play
No. 1 - No. 15 Bruno Rosa (RU) def. Jaroslav Horvath (ECU); 6-4, 6-1
No. 2 - No. 50 Christoph Muller (RU) def. Henrique Viana (ECU); 6-0, 6-0
No. 3 - Ralph Knupfer (RU) def. Stephen Whitwell (ECU); 6-1, 6-4
No. 4 - Chong Wang (RU) def. Aleksey Kochetov (ECU); 6-3, 6-4
No. 5 - Filip Zivojinovic (RU) def. Henrik Skalmerud (ECU); 6-1, 5-3, unfinished
No. 6 - Dennis Polyakov (RUN) def. Bryan Oakley (ECU); 6-4, 5-1, unfinished
Doubles Play
No. 1 - No. 24 Knupfer/Muller (RU) vs. Horvath/Viana (ECU); 7-7, unfinished
No. 2 - Tobias Scheil/Wang (RU) def. Kochetov/Skalmerud (ECU); 8-5
No. 3 - Polyakov/Rosa (RU) def. Oakley/Whitwell (ECU); 8-6
Team Records: East Carolina 13-12, Rice 16-7
