The Rice Owls women’s tennis team defeated Charlotte 4-3 on Apr. 18 to advance to the championship match of the American Conference Championship at the George R. Brown Tennis Center.
This win allowed No. 51 Rice, seeded third, to end Charlotte’s 17-match winning streak and reverse an earlier season loss against the Niners. The victory secures Rice a spot in their first conference title match since 2023.
In doubles play, Francesca Maguina and Ema Mravcova earned a win for Rice before Charlotte tied it up with a victory by Sara Suchankova and Ni Xi over Darya Schwartzman and Fernanda Martinez. Divna Ratkovic and Daniela Chica then clinched the doubles point for Rice with a close tiebreaker win.
During singles matches, Uma Bakaityte lost her match but Nithesa Selvaraj regained the lead for Rice with her own win. After back-to-back victories by Charlotte’s Xi and Prisca Abbas, Maguina evened things up again before Ratkovic secured the final point for Rice with a straight-set victory as fans cheered from the stands.
Rice last appeared in a conference championship match in 2023, when they lost to FIU in Conference USA play. They also beat Charlotte as a No. 3 seed versus No. 2-seeded Niners during that year’s semifinals.
The Owls will face top-seeded Wichita State in Sunday’s championship match at noon, which will be streamed on ESPN+.
