Tennis falls to Rice, prepares for C-USA play
By Christian Schmidt
Daily Cougar Staff
The UH women's tennis team couldn't quite pull out a victory over Rice
on Tuesday afternoon, falling 4-3 to its cross-town rivals in its last
match of the season.
Brian Viney/The Daily Cougar
Junior Analia Longoni won a three-set match against Rice's
junior Jeri Gonzales. The Cougars lost the dual match 4-3.
Senior Sarah Borwell was again forced to sit out the match as she recovers
from mononucleosis.
For three Houston seniors, the match was the last of their careers.
Borwell was forced to sit out, but Jo Keene and Kailey Meisinger gave their
all in the
last regular-season match of their collegiate careers.
The match was also the last for three Rice seniors. Natalie Briaud,
Judith Hagedorn and Kylie Wallis played their last regular-season matches
for the
Owls.
Junior Jen Baccarani and senior Jo Keene won their match at the No.
1 singles position 8-6 over Rice junior Jeri Gonzales and freshman Erika
Villalobos.
At No. 2 singles, junior Analia Longoni and senior Kailey Meisinger
fell 8-4 to the Rice duo of sophomore Annie Goodrich and senior Judith
Hagedorn.
The Cougars were again forced to forfeit the No. 3 doubles, not having
enough healthy players to play three doubles matches.
Since the Cougars lost two of the three doubles matches, Rice won the
doubles point, which proved to be the margin of victory in the contest.
Baccarani won her match in straight sets with little trouble. The junior
from Canada beat Rice senior Natalie Briaud 6-3, 6-1.
Keene also prevailed easily. She beat Yasmin Fisher 6-2, 6-2.
Longoni dominated in three sets over the Owls' Gonzales. Longoni came
back after losing the first set 5-7, winning the second 6-2. The third
set was
shortened since all other matches were already over, and Longoni won
a 10-6 tiebreaker.
Meisinger lost her match at the No. 4 spot, falling to Rice's Hagedorn.
Freshman Kandace Ridgeway lost her match at the No. 5 spot to Goodrich.
This weekend the team will participate in the Conference USA championships.
Texas Christian will play host to the event Thursday through Sunday in
Fort Worth.
Houston, the fourth seed in the tournament, will face No. 13 seed Charlotte
in the first round Thursday at 12 p.m. Should the heavily-favored Cougars
win, they will likely face Tulane in the second round Friday.
Earlier this season, the Cougars lost to Tulane 4-3 in New Orleans.
Borwell will likely participate in the NCAA championships to be held
May 16-25 in Palo Alto, Calif. She is currently the No. 21 player in the
country, which
should be high enough to ensure a spot in the championships. Stanford
will be the host school for the event.
