Men's Tennis drops competition at Rice

Story Headlines
- The Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi men's tennis team fell for the just the second time this season at Rice on Friday afternoon, faltering by a 4-0 margin to the Owls at the Boniuk Family Tennis Center in Houston, Texas.
- The Islander men drop to 7-2 overall on the season.
- Rice's men improve to a 6-1 overall record.
- William Mottet and Thomas Rodrigues Lopes notched a victory in the opening Doubles match, 6-2. The last time William and Thomas competed at Rice in the Fall Tournament, the duo managed to win the whole competition.
- Three separate singles matches went unfinished, including two with Islanders in position to secure points: Carlos Pedrosa Cuevas owned a one set advantage while Okkie Kellerman had split sets and was just starting the third.

Results
Doubles
1. Mottet/Rodrigues (AMCC) def. Eskeland/Warren (RICE); 6-2
2. Rutledge/Oscislawski (RICE) def. O. Kellerman/Frumholz (AMCC); 6-4
3. Abdel-Aziz/Salmon (RICE) def. Pedrosa/Yamanaka (AMCC); 6-3

Singles
1. Sumit Sakar (RICE) def. William Mottet (AMCC); 6-3, 6-3
2. Jacob Eskeland (RICE) def. Thomas Rodrigues Lopes (AMCC); 6-3, 6-3
3. Eric Rutledge (RICE) vs. Carlos Pedrosa Cuevas (AMCC); 6-7 (5-7), unf.
4. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz (RICE) vs. Okkie Kellerman (AMCC); 6-2, 4-6, unf.
5. Adam Oscislawski (RICE) def. Thibault Frumholz (AMCC); 6-4, 6-2
6. Campbell Salmon (RICE) vs. Kyohei Yamanaka (AMCC); unf.


History of Success
- As a program, the Islanders have reached 10 NCAA Tournaments in program history and captured 22 Southland titles in the last 12 years. The men are seeking the program's eighth NCAA Tournament appearance. The women have won the past three Southland Conference titles.

From the Coach
"We competed very hard against a very good Rice team. Doubles came down to one break and every singles match was tight. Teams like Rice and Texas are so good for us because they show us what we must improve to reach the next level. Practices become more purposeful and focused. This is a very motivated group that wants to be very good and plays hard for each other.  They are getting better each week and most importantly they are getting tougher each week"
- Steve Moore, Islanders Head Tennis Coach

Up Next
- The Islander men continue their weekend Houston trip with a neutral site match at noon on Saturday, Feb. 9 against Elon. Meanwhile, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women will travel to Dallas to take on SMU on Sunday, Feb. 10 at 4 p.m.

Stay Social
- For more information on Islanders Tennis, follow the team on Twitter (@IslandersTennis), Instagram (@IslandersTennis) and like their Facebook page (Islanders Tennis).