HOUSTON – Felipe Sarrasague earned the clinching victory at No. 1 singles and Elon University men’s tennis won its sixth-straight match with a 4-3 comeback victory over Rice on Sunday, Feb. 10, at the George R. Brown Tennis Center.
Trailing the Owls (6-2) in singles play at 3-1 after dropping the doubles point, the Phoenix (6-1) rallied with wins from Felipe Osses-Konig, Camilo Ponce and Sarrasague to claim the come-from-behind victory.
“I’m extremely proud of watching our team come back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat a quality Rice team,” said head coach Michael Leonard. “Our team was scrappy and kept fighting the whole day until we finally got to the finish line. We have a very competitive group that doesn’t give up and keeps fighting until the very end.”
HIGHLIGHTS
Rice took the early 1-0 lead, handing Elon just its second doubles loss of the season. Following a victory on court two, Eric Rutledge and Sumit Sarkar clinched the point with a 6-2 win on the top court. Dino Bonetta and Mario Paccini were tied 4-4 at No. 3 before the point was clinched.
At the start of singles action, Kyle Frankel earned his fifth-straight singles win on the year and leveled the match at 1-1 with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Mohamed Abdel-Aziz. Rice would then go on to win two straight matches on courts two and six to take a 3-1 lead with three singles matches remaining.
Osses-Konig’s 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 win on court three over Eric Rutledge trimmed Rice’s lead to 3-2 and Ponce’s come-from-behind 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 win at No. 5 tied the match at 3-3, which setting up Sarrasague’s contest on the top court to decide the match. Ponce was down 2-4 in the third set and 15-40 in the seventh game before rallying to defeat Adam Oscislawski on court five.
After Sarkar battled back to force a third set, Sarrasague took a commanding 5-2 advantage in the final set. Sarkar made one last attempt at a comeback winning two straight games, but Sarrasague closed out the set with a 6-4 victory to clinch the match for the Phoenix. Sarrasague extends his singles winning streak to four matches with the victory against Rice.
The Phoenix is off to its best seven-match start to a season since going 6-1 at the beginning of the 2007 campaign. Elon would improve its record to 9-1 at the start of its season 11 years ago and earned nine straight victories after its season-opening loss at then No. 26-ranked Wake Forest.
UP NEXT
The Phoenix returns to action on the road later this week with two matches in Wilmington, N.C. Elon will face UNCW on Friday, Feb. 15, at 1 p.m., followed by Georgia Southern on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 11 a.m.
Elon 4, Rice 3
Singles competition
1. Felipe Sarrasague (ELON) def. Sumit Sarkar (RICE) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
2. Jacob Eskeland (RICE) def. Mario Paccini (ELON) 6-1, 6-2
3. Felipe Osses-Konig (ELON) def. Eric Rutledge (RICE) 7-6 (7-3), 6-1
4. Kyle Frankel (ELON) def. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz (RICE) 6-2, 6-1
5. Camilo Ponce (ELON) def. Adam Oscislawski (RICE) 1-6, 6-1, 7-5
6. Campbell Salmon (RICE) def. Jacob Bicknell (ELON) 6-4, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. Eric Rutledge/Sumit Sarkar (RICE) def. Felipe Sarrasague/Taylor Foote (ELON) 6-2
2. Daniel Warren/Jacob Eskeland (RICE) def. Kyle Frankel/Camilo Ponce (ELON) 6-2
3. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz/Campbell Salmon (RICE) vs. Dino Bonetta/Mario Paccini (ELON) 4-4, unfinished
Match Notes
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (4,2,6,3,5,1)