HOUSTON – The Rice men’s tennis team opened the 67th Ralph O’Connor Rice Invitational with a 6-1 win over DePaul on Thursday at the George R. Brown Tennis Center.
The Owls (5-6) secured their seventh doubles point of the season to take an early lead. On Court 1, Yair Sarouk and Kabeer Kapasi defeated Sebastian Medica and Tobias Leitner, 6-3. Rice clinched the point on Court 2 when Santiago Navarro and Joshua Mandelbaum topped Alejandro Gandini and Pablo Almeida, 7-6. When play was halted, Tommy Czaplinski and Rafael Botran trailed 6-5 on Court 3.
In singles play, Navarro earned the first point for Rice with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Gandini. Botran followed with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Andy Hadziabdic on Court 2. Porras clinched the match for the Owls with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Sven Moser.
Play continued after the clinch, with Kapasi defeating Almeida, 6-4, 6-2, and Noey Do earning a 6-2, 6-3 win over Augusto Pardo-Cano. DePaul secured its lone point of the match when Medica defeated Czaplinski, 1-6, 7-5, 10-2, on Court 4.
Rice will close out the Ralph O’Connor Rice Invitational on Saturday against UAB at a time to be determined.
RESULTS
DOUBLES
Y. Sarouk/K. Kapasi (RICE) def. S. Medica/T. Leitner (DEPAUL) 6-3
S. Navarro/J. Mandelbaum (RICE) def. A. Gandini/P. Almeida (DEPAUL) 7-6
T. Czaplinski/R. Botran (RICE) vs T. Giles/S. Moser (DEPAUL) 5-6
Order of Finish: 1, 2
SINGLES
S. Navarro (RICE) def. A. Gandini (DEPAUL) 6-1, 6-0
R. Botran (RICE) def. A. Hadziabdic (DEPAUL) 6-0, 6-1
K. Kapasi (RICE) def. P. Almeida (DEPAUL) 6-4, 6-2
S. Medica (DEPAUL) def T. Czaplinski (RICE) 1-6, 7-5, 10-2
G. Porras (RICE) def. S. Moser (DEPAUL) 6-2, 6-2
N. Do (RICE) def. A. Pardo-Cano (DEPAUL) 6-2, 6-3
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 5, 3, 6, 4