April 18, 2008

IRVING, Texas - No. 2 seed Rice (16-7) advances to the semifinals with a 5-0 win over No. 7 seed East Carolina (13-12) to conclude opening round action of the 2008 Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship at the new Turpin Tennis Stadium located on SMU's campus in Dallas Friday.

RICE 5, EAST CAROLINA 0 BOX SCORE

Rice's Christoph Muller, who's ranked 50th in the nation, dominated ECU's Henrique Viana with identical 6-0 game scores. The Owls' top player, No. 15 Bruno Rosa, picked up the third point of the match with a 6-4, 6-1 win at the No. 1 slot over Jaroslav Horvath.

Chong Wang clinched the match for Rice with a 6-3, 6-4, win over Aleksey Kochetov. Ralph Knupfer and Stephen Whitwell were allowed to finish their match at No. 3 singles as Knupfer won 6-1, 6-4.

Intense action took place in doubles as Rice was nearly pushed to the limit before winning at the No. 2 and 3 positions. The 24th-ranked team of Christoph Muller and Ralph Knupfer was pulled off the court after Owls Chong Wang and Tobias Scheil and Bruno Rosa and Dennis Polyakov picked up 8-5 and 8-6 wins, respectively.

Rice will face SMU in the 2 p.m. semifinal match on Saturday. Top seed Tulsa will challenge No. 5 seed UCF in the opening semifinal match at 11 a.m.

The championship match is set for Sunday at Noon. The C-USA champion receives the league's automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Championships.

Tennis fans can watch live scoring at www.SMUMustangs.com or www.ConferenceUSA.com. Single day ticket prices are just $5 (adults) and $3 (youth), while an all-tournament pass is only $10 (adults) and $6 (youth). Groups of 10-or-more can purchase tickets for just $3 (single day) and $6 (tournament pass).

Match 4: Rice 5, East Carolina 0
DOUBLES
D1 #24 Muller/Knupfer, Rice vs. Viana/Horvath, East Carolina, 7-7 DNF
D2 Wang/Scheil, Rice def. Skalmerud/Kochetov, East Carolina, 8-5
D3 Rosa/Polyakov, Rice def. Whitwell/Oakley, East Carolina, 8-6

Order of finish: 2, 3, 1 DNF
SINGLES
S1 #15 Bruno Rosa, Rice vs. Jaroslav Horvath, East Carolina, 6-4, 6-1
S2 #50 Christoph Muller, Rice def. Henrique Viana, East Carolina, 6-0, 6-0
S3 Ralph Knupfer, Rice vs. Stephen Whitwell, East Carolina, 6-1, 6-4
S4 Chong Wang, Rice vs. Aleksey Kochetov, East Carolina, 6-3, 6-4
S5 Filip Zivojinovic, Rice vs. Henrik Skalmerud, East Carolina, 6-1, 5-3 DNF
S6 Dennis Polyakov, Rice vs. Bryan Oakley, East Carolina, 6-4, 5-1 DNF

Order of finish: 2, 1, 4, 3

2008 C-USA MEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
Turpin Tennis Stadium / Dallas, Texas / April 18-20
APRIL
Friday, 18
Match 1: No. 5 UCF def. No. 4 UAB, 4-2
Match 2: No. 1 Tulsa def. No. 8 Southern Miss, 4-1
Match 3: No. 3 SMU def. No. 6 Memphis, 4-0
Match 4: No. 2 Rice def. No. 7 East Carolina, 5-0

Saturday, 19
Match 5: No. 5 UCF vs. No. 1 Tulsa / 11 a.m.
Match 6: No. 3 SMU vs. No. 2 Rice / 2 p.m.

Sunday, 20
Match 7: winner Match 5 and 6 / 12 p.m.

All championship times are Central and will be played at the new Turpin Tennis Stadium.