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Tulsa
Rice
Tulsa Downs No. 24 Owls, 4-3
4/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 7, 2007
Tulsa, Okla. - The cold weather may have forced the match between the University of Tulsa (15-6) and Rice (12-8) indoors, but it couldn't cool the competition as the Hurricane battled for a 4-3 win to pick up its second win over a Conference USA opponent this regular season.
Tulsa, ranked No. 27 in the nation in the ITA/Fila National Rankings, fell behind early after dropping the doubles point. The duo of Arnau Brugues and Federico Soriano led off the doubles with an 8-4 win over Ralph Knupfer and Filip Zivojinovic, but Rice, the No. 24 ranked team, responded with tight wins at the number two and one courts to vault to the 1-0 lead.
The Hurricane evened the score in when Diego Camacho cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Zivojinovic in the six position, but quickly found themselves down again as No. 108 Ricardo Soriano fell in straight-sets to No. 98 Ralph Knupfer on court two.
TU again evened the score when No. 8 Arnau Brugues grabbed a 6-2, 6-3 win in the one position over No. 28 Ben Harknett, and gained a 3-2 advantage when Federico Soriano finished off a 6-1, 6-2 win over Tobias Scheil on court four.
The remaining matches each went to third sets, with Rice knotting the match at 3-3 when Jason Mok got the better of Ross Cunningham, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
In the final match, Will Gray and the Owls' Christoph Muller battled to a tie-breaker in the third set where Gray forged out a 7-5 win to grab a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5) decision and give TU the match 4-3.
Tulsa will be back in action on April 16 when it hosts Oral Roberts in the regular season finale at 2 p.m. at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
