In its biggest upset of the season, the No. 61 SMU men’s tennis team toppled No. 27 Rice, 4-3, in Houston on Friday. The win advances the Mustangs to 15-8 overall, 1-1 in conference play and extends their streak to eight wins. The Owls, who are in Conference USA, are 13-9 after the loss.
Due to rain, the match was moved indoors and began with singles. After tying 3-3, the match moved on to doubles where SMU clinched the victory with wins at No. 1 and No. 3.
No. 72 Alex Skrypko led the charge, defeating No. 28 Ben Harknett in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 1.
The middle of SMU’s roster was unable to beat their opponents. In the No. 2 spot, junior David Kuczer fell to No. 95 Ralph Knupfer 7-6, 6-4, while teammate Oivind Alver lost to Christoph Muller at No. 3. This week, Federico Murgier returned to the No. 4 spot after playing up at No. 3 last week. The senior lost 6-2, 6-2, to Tobias Schiel at the No. 5 position.
Robin Faghen defended in the No. 5 spot, 6-3, 6-3, against Rice’s Jason Mok. The freshman earned his 14th win of the season and advanced his record at No. 5 to 7-4.
At No. 6, Adolfo Solares tied up the match between SMU and Rice with a 6-7, 6-3, 6-0, victory over Hoony Shin. Solares, who holds the team’s best singles record at 14-3, was the last to finish singles play.
The doubles became the deciding factor for this conference matchup. At No. 1, Skrypko and Murgier defeated the No. 59 doubles team of Ralph Knupfer and Tobas Scheil. The match ended at 8-4 in the Mustangs’ favor. SMU dropped the No. 2 doubles match. Partners Oivind Alver and Robin Faghen lost for only the seventh time this season, only the fourth at No. 2. Rice’s Ben Harknett and Christoph Muller took the victory 8-3.
SMU clinched the win with its No. 3 doubles pair of Kuczer and Solares. The duo defeated Dennis Polyakov and Jason Mok 8-5.
The contest against Rice was SMU’s second-to-last match of the season. The Mustangs end their regular season play tomorrow when they face Florida Atlantic University at the Bent Tree Country Club.
Nationally un-ranked FAU, also the Owls, is 9-10 for the season with a recent win over the University of Texas-San Antonio.
This is the Owls’ second-to-last match before they head to Denton for the SunBelt Conference Championships.
The Mustangs travel to Houston for the C-USA Championships April 20-22.
