March 24, 2006
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team lost today in the first day of the Rice Invitational in Houston, Texas. The loss is the third in a row for the Boilermakers after dropping matches to No. 2 Illinois and Hawaii.
Purdue jumped out with a one point lead early by winning the doubles point behind the play of Eric Hodgman and Kelubia Mabatah at the No. 2 position and Jared Leibner and Scott Warner at No. 3. The two duos won their doubles matches to give Purdue confidence heading into singles play. In singles play, the Boilermakers failed to win any matches, giving Rice all six points and a 6-1 victory.
Purdue will resume play in the Rice Invitational Saturday when it plays No. 37 Texas Tech. The match is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. -P-
No. 47 Rice 6, No. 73 Purdue 1
Singles
1. No. 35 Robert Searle (RU) def. Colin Foster (PUR), 6-1, 6-0
2. Ben Harknett (RU) def. Kelubia Mabatah (PUR), 6-4, 6-0*
3. Ralph Knupfer (RU) def. Eric Hodgman (PUR), 6-0, 6-4
4. Tony Haerle (RU) def. Kurt Zaske (PUR), 6-2, 6-3
5. Filip Zivojinovic (RU) def. Jarred Leibner (PUR), 7-5, 7-5
6. Christoph Müller (RU) def. Scott Warner (PUR), 6-3, 6-2
Doubles
1. No. 51 Searle/Haerle (RU) def. Foster/Zaske (PUR), 8-4
2. Hodgman/Mabatah (PUR) def. Knupfer/Zivojinovic (RU), 9-7
3. Leibner/Warner (PUR) def. Harknett/Müller (RU), 8-6
Purdue: 5-8
Rice: 10-5
-P-