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2/26/2006 NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The Commodores were unable to recover from Saturday’s loss to Minnesota (4-3), and dropped their second weekend match to Rice (4-3). Despite changes in the doubles line-up, all VU teams came within two games of the Owls but were unable to notch a victory. The ‘Dores made a forceful singles retaliation to try and make up for the doubles point, but came just short of the four match wins needed. After No. 1 Ryan Preston quickly defeated Ben Harkett (6-3, 6-2) to tie the contest, No.2 Evan Dufaux fell to Rice’s Ralph Knufer 6-3, 6-1. At No. 4 singles, Nathan Sachs was struggling to overcome a 0-3 deficit when he tripped and required a medical time out. After wrapping his ankle and hobbling for a few seconds, Sachs quickly rebounded and recovered lost points to end the set in a tie breaker. Sachs was unable to get the edge over Owl Filip Zivojinovic in the first set tie breaker, and suffered the same outcome in the final set (6-7, 6-7). The Commodores had a chance to tie the contest with wins at No. 3 and No. 5 singles, both of which were in tie breaker sets as Sachs dropped No. 4 singles. Andy Mack soundly defeated Tony Haerle in the final set (6-2, 4-6, 6-2) improving his overall record to 6-2 and putting the Commodores within two match points of the win. The clinching match for the Owls came at No. 5 singles, where Jordan Magarik fell to Christoph Muller (3-6, 6-3, 3-6). Nik Cromydas earned the final match point for the Commodores when he defeated Rodrigo Gabriel in a super-tie breaker (7-6(4), 4-6, 1-0(6)). The Commodores will begin SEC play this Friday, March 3, in Alabama. Results |
