HOUSTON - The Rice men and the Fresno State women, along with both SMU squads were victorious on Saturday, advancing to Sunday's finals of the 2004 Western Athletic Conference Men's and Women's Tennis Championships, being hosted by the Owls.
As severe storms moved into the Houston area overnight and into the morning, play was relocated from the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium on the Rice campus to the Jewish Community Center's new indoor tennis facilities for the women, while the men headed to the Downtown Club at the Met. All dual matches began with singles.
Action began at 9 am with the resumption of the SMU/Hawaii women's match at the JCC. The Mustangs had won the doubles point Friday night before rain suspended the match during singles, then came on strong on Saturday to win 4-0.
Next up were the Rice women taking on top seed Fresno State. The Bulldogs won at the top three positions, then clinched the match with a close 7-5, 7-5 victory by Vlatka Jovanovic against Karen Chao at No. 4. With the 4-0 win, Fresno State advanced to the championship match.
SMU returned to the courts to take on Tulsa in the second semifinal, and the closest match of the day. The Golden Hurricane took wins at the one, two and four ladder positions and held a 3-2 lead as the battle moved into a third set at No. 5 singles. After losing the first set, the Mustangs' Lynsie Jones rallied against Santie Delport for a 2-6, 6-0, 6-4 victory, knotting the score and sending the match into doubles. SMU won at the two and three spots to take the point and a 4-3 victory, and moved into the finals.
Men's action began in the afternoon with No. 2 SMU facing No. 3 Boise State. The match saw four of the six singles go to three sets. With his Mustangs leading 3-2, Peter Oredsson rallied from a set down against the Broncos' James Ludlow to take a thrilling 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory, clinching the team win and sending SMU into the championship match.
After receiving a first-round bye as the top seed, the Rice men finally hit the courts on Saturday, facing No. 5 Tulsa. The Owls took an early 2-1 lead with wins at two and three singles. Rice's Tony Haerle then downed the Hurricane's Federico Soriano 6-3, 7-6 (6) with the final two matches going into third sets. Ben Harknett secured Rice a trip to the championship match with his 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win against Diego Camacho at No. 6.
Sunday's championship action begins at 9:30 am with Fresno State looking for its third-straight women's title against SMU. The Rice men will try for their first WAC tennis title when they host the Mustangs at 12:30 pm. Both matches are slated for the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium on the Rice campus. Complete results are available at www.RiceOwls.com.
RESULTS: 2004 Championship Results