The Rice men’s tennis team, seeded No. 1, advanced to the semifinals of the American Conference Championship after defeating No. 9-seeded Tulane 4-1 on Apr. 17.
This victory allows Rice, ranked No. 49 nationally and holding a season record of 14-7, to move forward in the tournament and marks their second win against Tulane this year.
Rice secured an early lead by winning the doubles point. On Court 3, Tommy Czaplinski and Rafael Botran defeated Alec Gaudin and AJ Mercer with a score of 6-3. The duo of Petro Kuzmenok and Santiago Navarro, ranked No. 57 nationally, clinched the point by overcoming No. 37-ranked Daniel Phillips and Lance Nisbet with a score of 6-4 on Court 1. Play was halted on Court 2 while Yair Sarouk and Kabeer Kapasi led their match.
In singles play, Tulane tied the match when Phillips beat Kuzmenok on Court 1 (6-1, 6-2). Botran then put Rice back ahead with a straight-set victory over Gaudin (6-2, 6-3), followed by Navarro’s win against Asaf Friedler (6-2, 6-2) on Court 2. Noey Do secured the overall win for Rice by defeating Steven Rice (6-2, 6-4).
Kapasi was leading his final set before play stopped on his court after splitting sets earlier in his match; Gabriel Porras had also evened his contest at one set each before it was unfinished.
Looking ahead, Rice will face fourth-seeded North Texas in Saturday’s semifinal round at noon—the first meeting between these two teams this season.
