Men's tennis falls to Texas Tech
The men's tennis team opened up its final season of Southwest Conference play with a close 4-3 loss to Texas Tech University.
The Owls began the day by dropping the doubles point by a score of 2-1, and this proved to be the difference in the match.
The team of junior Rico Jacober and freshman Robert Collins picked up the only doubles win for the Owls.
The Owls split the six singles matches. Collins, Jacober and senior Jon Elsberry all picked up wins. Sophomore Naisohn Arafi, freshman Efe Ustundag and senior Shaheen Ladhani fell in their matches.
"It was a very close match. We shouldn't have lost our doubles point. We were unfortunate to lose our usual edge," Jacober said.
Jacober's win came against Tech's Matthais Rohlin, who is currently the 10th-ranked player in the nation.
"Everyone played well; it was just one of those days," Assistant Coach Greg Davis said.
Davis feels that the team is showing improvement.
"We're playing very tough competition right now, and we are getting closer to that level," he said.
Davis also commented on the play of Ustundag.
"Efe played well. He just came up a shot or two short," he said.
Ustundag said he was motivated by his teammates.
"When I was on the court, the team was down 3-2. I played well, and my teammates helped me out, but my opponent was just lucky," he said.
The team continues its final tour of the conference with visits to Southern Methodist University today and third-ranked Texas Christian University on Saturday.
"TCU could win the national championship this year," Davis said.
Jacober is hoping for good results this weekend."We want to win against SMU, and I think we can. TCU is the strongest team in our conference. We hope to make a good showing," he said.
This item appeared in the Sports section of the March 29, 1996 issue.
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