Mast, Collins impressive in men's tennis final fall match
Tournament entrants hailed from some of the most renowned tennis programs in the country, and the Rice men fared well against the stiff competition.
Assistant coach Greg Davis felt that Rice's performance in this tournament was definitely an improvement over last year.
"We had an above average performance overall, and these results were what we were looking for out of the guys," he said. "We wanted to end the fall season on a positive note, and I think we did that."
Three flights of singles competition comprised the tournament although most of the Rice wins came from the bottom two.
Entering only three men into the highly competitive "A" flight, Head Coach Larry Turville had to be pleased with the performances of senior Jon Elsberry and junior Rico Jacober.
After losing his first-round match to Miguel Perez of Northeastern Louisiana University, eighth-seeded Elsberry ran away with the consolation bracket, refusing to drop a set until his final match, which he won 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.
Junior Rico Jacober, still suffering from various illnesses and injuries incurred during this semester, also managed to make an impressive showing in the Flight "A" consolation singles draw.
After a tough first-round loss to nationally-ranked Steven Parkes of the University of Southern Louisiana, Jacober made it to the semifinals in consolation.
There he played particularly well against Tyler Jimenez of Texas Tech University despite losing this match 5-7, 6-4, 4-6.
In the "B" Flight, freshman Robert Collins and sophomore Shane Stone had impressive runs to the quarterfinals and semis, respectively.
Against Graham Thurmond of Southwest Texas State University, Collins stumped his opponent at every turn.
Collins won both this match and his second-round match in straight sets before reaching the quarter-finals where he was stopped by Robbie Krause of Texas A&M University 6-0, 3-6, 5-7.
Stone, with ailing knees, managed to gut it out all the way to the semifinals where he lost in straight sets to the eventual "B" Flight tournament champion, Dieter Schwen-dinger of Texas Tech.
Although the Rice men fared well in the top two flights, the real story of the tournament lies in the "C" Flight where sophomore Darin Mast made an incredible run for the semifinals.
In his first round match, Mast met up with one of last year's top-25 players in the country.
Ryan Caldwell of Southwest Texas wasn't supposed to play in the "C" bracket, but since he had been out of practice for a while, his coaches placed him there so that he could build up some confidence.
Mast, however, had very different plans for Caldwell and his comeback strategy.
Capitalizing on Caldwell's mistakes and making brilliant plays of his own, Mast floored his opponent 6-1, 6-0.
With the momentum from this almost-flawless victory, Mast did not drop a single set until his semifinal match, where he lost against the eventual tournament champion, Gines Abellan of the University of Texas at Austin.
The men are now finished with the fall season and are looking forward to the upcoming weeks of rest and relaxation.
"We won't return to practice until after Christmas, and we're all glad to have ended the season as we did," Elsberry said.
This item appeared in the Sports section of the November 17, 1995 issue.
Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights
Reserved.
This document may be distributed
electronically, provided that it is distributed in its
entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted
without the express written permission of:
The Rice Thresher, Rice University, 6100 Main, Houston, TX 77005-1892, USA.
The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu