Ladhani's third set win clinches Owls victory

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by Shay Gilmore

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The men's tennis team hosted the University of Texas at San Antonio and Northeast Louisiana State University at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium last weekend.

While the match against UTSA turned out to be a 6-1 win for the Owls, the real story from this past weekend was the match on Saturday versus NLSU.

Rice got off to a good start, taking a 1-0 lead after capturing all three doubles matches. The senior team of Jon Elsberry and Shaheen Ladhani defeated the team of Miguel Perez and Bruce Bolton of NLSU 8-2. Sophomores Efe Ustundag and Darin Mast had a little trouble putting their opponents away, but they eventually pulled out a 9-8 win after a 7-2 tie-breaker.

Elsberry and sophomore Naisohn Arfai provided two singles points for the Owls, but NLSU battled back to win three of the singles points. Elsberry played particularly well in his match as he dominated Miguel Perez 6-1 in the first set.

With the match score tied at 3-3, it all came down to Ladhani in his match against Tony Prudent.

"Shaheen has always been known as a clutch player," Assistant Coach Greg Davis said. "Just last year he pulled out a win against Texas Tech [then-ranked 35th nationally] after saving three match points."

Ladhani lost the first set to Prudent 4-6 but came right back with a second set win 6-4. In the third set, Ladhani tied his opponent 6-6 in regular match play and went on to win the tie-breaker 7-5.

"The pressure was really on Shaheen, and he definitely rose to the occasion," Davis said.

With Ladhani's win, the Owls took the match 4-3 and won its fifth dual match of the season.

"This is as about as close as they come," Head Coach Larry Turville said.

This win against NLSU was an important win for the Owls because NLSU is currently ranked close to the Owls in the region. Any win within the region makes the Owls' case for participation in the regional tournament stronger.

"The Regional Tournament Committee will be taking only eight teams into the tournament, and we're currently ranked ninth," Davis said. "However, I don't really see us being a bubble team; I'm sure we'll see us going into the tournament ranked at or around seven or eight."

The team will enjoy some respite from dual matches this weekend as they prepare for their participation in the San Diego Team Tournament to be held over the weekend of March 8.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the March 1, 1996 issue.

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