April 22, 2006

The No. 7 seed Rice pulled off an upset for the second consecutive day as the Owls defeated No. 3 seed Houston to advance to the title match of the 2006 Conference USA Women's Tennis Championship. The four-day event will conclude with Rice and SMU battling for the crown at 10 a.m. at the Garland Tennis Center. The winner earns C-USA's automatic bid to the 2006 NCAA Tournament.

Just one day after the Owls knocked off second-seeded Marshall, Rice defeated Houston, 4-1. The Owls dropped the doubles point; however, returned with great momentum in the singles, winning four straight and advancing to Sunday's championship match.

Rice is looking to earn its first conference championship title. The Owls advanced to the main draw of the WAC tournament for the first time in school history last year. The win marks the first time a seven-seed has made an appearance in the C-USA title match.

Rice grabbed the No. 1 doubles match as Blair DiSesa and Medeja Egic defeated UH duo of Brianna Bateup and Loli Gomez, 8-2, but Cougar tandem of Sonja Nikolic and Sarah Reimer knotted the teams with a win at No. 3. The pair beat Christine Dao and Tiffany Lee.

The deciding doubles point went to Houston as Kami Miller and Yolandi Terblanche defeated Rice's Alanna Rodgers and Kimberly Patenaude. The Cougar duo has gone 14-1 in the spring with its lone setback coming at LSU on March 1. The .930 winning percentage is the best in program history.

But the tune changed during singles action. The Owls, who faced 13 ranked opponents in 2006, including 11 ranked in the top 50 and six in the top 20, picked up four consecutive singles points.

Starting off for the Owls was rookie Alanna Rodgers, who clinched the deciding team match-point for Rice in Friday's quarterfinal win over No. 2 Marshall. Rodgers defeated Houston's Vicky Simpson, 6-1, 6-1 at No. 5. Tiffany Lee then picked up the Owls go-ahead point with a 6-2, 6-2 finish over UH Sonja Nikolic at No. 3.

Christine Dao and Medeja Egic claimed the next two singles points, respectively, in order to push Rice into the tournament finals. Dao defeated Loli Gomez, 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2, while Egic beat UH senior Kami Miller, 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4.

The Owls face the Mustangs Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Garland Tennis Center with an awards ceremony and trophy presentation immediately following.

Match #9 - Garland Tennis Center
(7) Rice 4 def. (3) Houston 1

Singles
No. 1 Blair DiSesa, RICE, vs. Brianna Bateup, HOU, dnf (6-4, 2-1)
No. 2 Christine Dao, RICE, def. Loli Gomez, HOU, 6-2, 6-2
No. 3 Tiffany Lee, RICE, def. Sonja Nikolic, HOU, 6-2, 6-2
No. 4 Medeja Egic, RICE, def. Kami Miller, HOU, 6-0, 6-1
No. 5 Alanna Rodgers, RICE, def. Vicky Simpson, HOU, 6-1, 6-1
No. 6 Emily Braid, RICE, vs. Yolandi Terblanche, HOU, dnf (6-3, 3-2)

Doubles
No. 1 DiSesa/ Egic, RICE, def. Bateup/ Gomez, HOU, 8-2
No. 2 Miller/ Terblanche, HOU, def. Patenaude/ Rodgers, RICE, 8-6
No. 3 Reimer/ Nikolic, HOU, def. Lee/ Dao, RICE, 8-4