University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
No. 30 Rice Cruises Past Cajuns 4-1
3/22/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
No. 30
Rice Cruises Past Cajuns 4-1
HOUSTON, Texas – Rain and a venue change did not affect No. 30 Rice as the Owls cruised past Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns men's tennis team 4-1 here Saturday at the Rice Invitational. The match began in the morning at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium and the two teams finished the contest at the indoor courts of the Downtown Club.
The Cajuns (6-6) drop to .500 for the first time since Feb. 19, when the Cajuns knocked off Southern 7-0. Rice, ranked No. 30 in the nation, improves to 13-2.
The loss is the fourth in a row for the Cajuns after UL Lafayette began the season 6-2.
In singles, UL Lafayette went 0-3 against nationally-ranked players. Jakub Ilowski, ranked No. 62 in the country, did not finish his match against No. 22 Robert Searle. Ilowski remains 8-1 on the season.
Michael Tarkowski (6-6) lost his fifth-straight match with a 6-2, 6-1 loss to No. 49 William Barker. The other half of the Barker pair, No. 30 Richard Barker, defeated Ivan Kovalev 7-5, 6-4. Kovalev drops to 7-6 on the season.
“Rice is a very good team,” said UL Lafayette head coach Justin McGrath. “They are the best team we have seen this season thus far.”
“You have your hats off to them; they are well coached and they competed well.”
Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns men's tennis team closes out the Rice Invitational Sunday against No. 31 Northwestern at 9 a.m.
MATCH RESULTS
NO. 30 RICE 4, LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE 1
SINGLES
#1 (62) Jakub Ilowski (UL) vs. #22 Robert Searle (RU) DNF
#2 Ivan Kovalev (UL) l. to #30 Richard Barker (RU) 7-5, 6-4
#3 Michael Tarkowski (UL) l. to #49 William Barker (RU) 6-2,
6-1
#4 Amanjot Singh (UL) l. to #123 Konstantin Haerle (RU) 6-3,
6-1
#5 Marc Castellana (UL) vs. Cody Jackson (RU) DNF
#6 Evghenii Corduneanu (UL) def. Matthias Mathaes (RU) 6-0,
6-4
DOUBLES
#1 Ilowski/Singh (UL) l. to #1 Barker/Barker (RU) 8-1
#2 Tarkowski/Castellana (UL) l. to Searle/Haerle (RU) 8-5
#3 Kovalev/Corduneanu (UL) l. to Jackson/Mathaes (RU) 8-5
-Ragin'
Cajuns-
