May 14, 2007

NCAA Men's Tennis Recap
The University of Tulsa's men's tennis team (19-7) was bitten by the upset bug on Friday afternoon, dropping a marathon match to No. 45 Vanderbilt, 4-2, in the opening round of the 2007 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship in Baton Rouge, La.

The No. 18 ranked Hurricane fell behind early, with Vanderbilt squeezing out the doubles point for the early 1-0 lead. Andy Connelly and Lucques Maasdorp notched TU's only doubles win, taking an 8-5 decision at the number two position.

Tulsa came out firing in singles and knotted the score at 1-1 when Diego Camacho took a 6-1, 7-6 (4) decision from Jordan Magarik.

Vandy regained the lead when Ross Cunningham fell at the number five position to Andy Mack, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, but TU again tied things up when Federico Soriano picked up a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 win over Vijay Paul.

The Commodores responded with a win on court two with No. 117 Nik Cromydas grinding out a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 103 Ricardo Soriano to put the Hurricane down 3-2.

Vanderbilt got the match clincher when Evan Dufaux held off Tulsa's Will Gray, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5), for the 4-2 win.

The loss brings the TU season to a close as a team, but No. 7 Arnau Brugues and the No. 41 duo of Camacho and Cunningham will be in action in Athens, Ga., at the NCAA Individual and Doubles Championships on May 23-28.

Rice's season also came to a close on Friday afternoon in Waco where No. 30 Rice fell to No. 35 Texas A&M 4-2 in the opening round of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships.

The Owls (15-12) took the early lead by winning a tough doubles point. After the Aggies won at two doubles, Rice's Ben Harknett and Dennis Polyakov struck back at three, beating Brett Joelson and Brad Williams 8-6. The Owls' then clinched the point at one doubles with No. 51 Ralph Knupfer und Tobias Scheil downed Bryan Wooten and Luka Ocvirk 9-7.

Texas A&M rallied back in singles with wins at the top two spots to take the lead. Sophomore Christoph Müller then won his team leading 17th match of the season, and 28th of the year, to even the score at 2-2, sweeping Ocvirk 7-5, 6-3. It wasn't enough though, as the Aggies scored two more wins to clinch the team decision.

Although the team's season is over, Harknett's senior campaign continues on May 23, when the Owl joins the field of 64 vying for the NCAA singles crown.