Men's tennis wins Reebok Classic; to host Rice Invitational

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by Shay Gilmore

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The men's tennis team brought home the bacon this past weekend as they ran away with the title of the 10th Annual Reebok Classic held in San Diego.

"I am about as pleased as I can be with the guys' performance in California," Assistant Coach Greg Davis said. "We're now in really great shape."

The men's path to victory began with a match against Indiana State University on March 8. The Owls nabbed the doubles point early with the consistent senior team of Jonathan Elsberry and Shaheen Ladhani running away with an 8-1 win.

It was all Rice from there on out. Refusing to drop a set, the Owls won the next five singles matches. Elsberry's third set capitulation (6-8 in the tie breaker) to John James of ISU was the only loss the Owls experienced on Friday.

Sophomore Efe Ustundag played particularly well in his match as he won 6-2, 6-3.

On Saturday, the team returned to the courts to take on the eight-time tournament champion University of California at San Diego. Rice became one of only two teams ever to beat UCSD at this tournament. "The key in beating UCSD was our grabbing the doubles point at the very beginning; that gave us a sense of assurance as we went into the singles play," Davis said.

The men did indeed grab the doubles point early on, but they had to do so with a last-minute substitute and shuffle. After Elsberry complained of bronchitis complications, sophomore Shane Stone stepped in and took Ustundag's place next to sophomore Darin Mast. Ustundag teamed up with Ladhani.

Ladhani and Ustundag put their opponents away 8-6 as Stone and Mast echoed their performance with an 8-6 victory.

In singles play, the results were mixed for the Owls. Elsberry and junior Rico Jacober fell in straight sets, and freshman Robert Collins fell in the third set of his match (6-8 in the tie breaker).

However, Ladhani and Ustundag countered these losses with straight set wins against UCSD as they brought the match count to 3-3.

Stone sealed the Rice victory with his third set win (8-6 in the tie breaker) against Tim Truebenbach of UCSD.

"I don't think I was playing all that great on Saturday," Stone said. "I had been out of match play for quite a while, and I really feel that it was the team unity that brought me through to a match win.

"Teammates on the sidelines can make all the difference; this win was definitely a true team effort."

Sunday, the team entered the championship round of the tournament against Purdue University.

Coming off their win over UCSD, the Owls were pumped up but not overly inflated as they walked on the court.

"Even though we had just beat last year's champs, we still knew that we had a ways to go," Davis said.

Rice was again able to set the pace of the match by capturing the doubles point early on.

Elsberry and Mast took their match 8-5 as Jacober and Collins came through 8-6.

Jacober and sophomore Naisohn Arfai followed Elsberry's lead and thwarted their opponents in similar straight-set style. After these wins, the tournament was effectively over.

Efe Ustundag was named the tournament's most valuable player. The Owls are now 8-1 as they head into the Rice Invitational today.

"It's been four years since we last won a team tournament championship, and I hope we can keep up this momentum this weekend," Head Coach Larry Turville said.

Rice will take on Columbia University today, Iowa State University on Saturday and finish up with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Sunday.

Turville and Davis encourage all Rice students and staff to come out to Jake Hess Tennis Stadium to cheer on the guys in their bid for another championship title.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the March 15, 1996 issue.

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