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The Rice Thresher
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by Eric Raub thresher staff The men's tennis team overpowered two opponents Friday to open the dual match season. The team's first victim was Lamar University, which the Owls swept in a 7-0 win. The University of New Orleans fared slightly better but never posed a serious threat as Rice left Jake Hess Tennis Stadium with a 6-1 win. In dual matches, a team earns one point for every singles match and one point for winning two of the three doubles matches, so a total of seven points are available in each match. Lamar packed its bags after just two and a half hours. Some of the Owls were back in their respective colleges in time for lunch. "Lamar didn't put up any resistance," assistant coach Shaheen Ladhani said. "They didn't expect to win, and it showed. You've got to give credit to our guys for burying them and not letting them believe they could win." The afternoon match was moved indoors due to inclement weather, which hurt some of the Owls who play better on outdoor courts. Sophomore Matthias Mathaes, playing at the top singles spot, almost dropped his first set, and junior Fabien Giraud had to fight to save his singles match. "New Orleans was better," Ladhani said. "Fabien had to save his match but he did. He is playing a lot better tennis. It probably would have been easier for him outside but a year ago he would not have been able to come back." The Owls' opponents were so outmatched that Rice elected to keep freshmen Richard and William Barker, who will likely play at the top two spots for the Owls, out of the matches. There are NCAA limitations on the number of playing dates, so the Owls chose to save their best for more competitive matches. Despite the soft competition, two wins are two wins, and the Owls say the matches were a good start to their spring season. "It was a good start," junior Alexis Pourchet said. "We will probably never play two weak teams again, so it was good to start out strong. I thought everybody was playing really well on his own." The Owls' first real test of the spring season will come Sunday against the University of Texas at Arlington. Although the team is not nationally known as a powerhouse, they have some strong players, including 42nd-ranked Andy Leber, who will play at the top spot for UTA. "The team on Sunday will be the first hard test towards getting a better ranking and proving we belong in the top 20," Mathaes said. "The first two teams weren't even really testing how good we can be." Proving they belong in the top 20 has become a realistic goal for the Owls after their strong fall season and solid performance in the Rice Indoor Invitational last month. The team is ready to play the tougher opponents and start its climb up the ladder from the No. 74 spot it now occupies. "The team is hungry to take on some good teams," Ladhani said. "I feel we've got the goods to take on any team in the country."
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