Men’s Tennis: Louisiana got a big road win, beating the Rice Owls, 4-2

HOUSTON – Sophomore Pearse Dolan‘s straight set win at No. 4 singles provided the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns men’s tennis team with the final blow needed to come away with the 4-2 win over the Rice Owls here at the George R. Brown Tennis Center.
           
The win improves the Cajuns record to 2-3 and it’s the first win the Cajuns have had over Rice since 2014 snapping a three-year winless streak against the Owls.  As for Rice their record drops to 1-2 on the season.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Doubles): Louisiana got their first doubles point of the season thanks to two solid performances from the pairing of freshman Pierce Gilheany and Dolan who beat the Rice duo of Abdel-Aziz/Aiman 6-4 at No. 3. 
           
And the Louisiana grouping of junior Arthur Libaud and sophomore Jamie Fraser wrapped up the doubles point for the Cajuns with a 6-4 win against the Owls’ pair of Russell/Eskeland at No. 2.  The two wins for the Cajuns put the score at 1-0 heading into singles play with the Cajuns looking to lock down the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Singles): Right off the bat Gilheany got the Cajuns started on the right foot, dominating Rice’s Jared Aiman in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0 to grab the win at No. 6 and it put the Cajuns up 2-0.  Shortly after Gilheany’s win at No. 6 the Cajuns got one win closer to sealing the deal with a win at No. 3 by senior Vlad Kramarov who took down Rice’s Mohamaed Abdel-Aziz in straight sets 6-1, 6-4.
           
Rice got two wins back-to-back at No. 5 when Cajuns freshman Dominik Koenig fell in straight sets to Conrad Russell, 6-4, 6-1.  And the Owls’ followed that up at No. 1 when Eric Rutledge beat Louisiana sophomore Elio Lago, 6-1, 6-4.
           
With the score sitting at 3-2 in favor of the Cajuns, Dolan dug in, as he set out to finish off his match to lock up the win for Louisiana.  Playing at No. 4, Dolan stayed strong against Rice’s Jacob Eskeland, holding off any runs that Eskeland attempted to make to come away with a straight set 6-4, 7-5 win.  Dolan’s win gave the Cajuns the four points they needed to come away with the win and the final score sat at 4-2 for the Cajuns victory.

UP NEXT FOR THE CAJUNS: Louisiana has one more match on the road before opening up at Cajun Courts when they head down I-10 to Baton Rouge, La., to face off in a mid-week matchup with the LSU Tigers on Tuesday, Jan. 23 with that start scheduled for 5 p.m.
           
The Cajuns then open up their home schedule on Saturday, Jan. 27 when they host Xavier (La.) in a doubleheader.  The first match is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and will be play on Bourgeois Courts, the second match will start at 2 p.m. and that will be played on Cajun Courts.

FOLLOWING THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS: Follow the Cajuns on twitter @RaginCajunsMT for updates during the matches and links to recaps and live stats that are provided.

Louisiana 4, Rice 2
January 21, 2018 at Houston, Texas (George R. Brown Tennis Center)
Doubles:
1.) Kramarov/Lago (LA) vs. Sarkar/Rutledge (Rice) DNF
2.) Libaud/Jamie Fraser (LA) def. Russell/Eskeland (Rice) 6-4
3.) Gilheany/Dolan (LA) def. Aiman/Abdel-Aziz (Rice) 6-4
Order of finish: 3, 2*
 
Singles:
1.) Eric Rutledge (Rice) def. Elio Lago (LA) 6-1, 6-4
2.) Arthur Libaud (LA) vs. Sumit Sarkar (Rice) DNF
3.) Vlad Kramarov (LA) def. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz (Rice) 6-1, 6-4
4.) Pearse Dolan (LA) def. Jacob Eskeland (Rice) 6-4, 7-5
5.) Conrad Russell (Rice) def. Dominik Koenig (LA) 6-4, 6-1
6.) Pierce Gilheany (LA) def. Jared Aiman (Rice) 6-2, 6-0
Order of finish: 6, 3, 5, 1, 4*
 
Team Records:
Louisiana: 2-3
Rice: 1-2