Christoph Müller clinched the doubles point and kept the Owls alive with a three-set comeback singles win.

May 9, 2008

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AUSTIN - Tobias Scheil battled multiple ailments and fought back from a 3-0 deficit winning a seesaw third set to lift the No. 24 Rice men's tennis to a gritty 4-3 comeback win over No. 34 TCU Friday afternoon in opening round of the NCAA Tournament at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center on the University of Texas campus.

The Owls (17-8) move on to face No. 7 Texas Saturday at 1pm. The Longhorns notched a 4-0 victory against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

"It's funny how things work out," Scheil said. "I told (assistant coach) Efe (Ustendag) last week that I didn't want this type of match to come down to me. I give credit to my teammates who carried me through the third set with their cheering. I didn't want this to be (seniors) Filip (Zivojinovic) and Ralph's (Knupfer) last match. I couldn't let those guys down."

Scheil bounced back from losing the first set in a tiebreaker to Casey Powers with a break of serve up 5-4 in the second set. The German dug out of a 15-40 hole with his chip-and-charge return of serve to send the match into a deciding third set.

Powers seized the early edge breaking Scheil's serve twice to grab a 3-0 advantage to open the deciding frame. Scheil charged back and strung together five consecutive games to earn a 5-3 lead before Powers leveled the score at 5-5.

After winning seven consecutive points that included a service hold at love, Scheil sealed the 4-3 win on his third match point as Powers hit a forehand into the net to end the four-hour and 56-minute marathon.

No. 62 ranked Christoph Müller started the comeback overcoming a one-set deficit of his own against Emanuel Brighiu at the No. 2 spot. The German won the final eight games for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 triumph to deadlock the score at 3-3.

After a slow start in doubles action which saw No. 2 team Chong Wang and Tobias Scheil lose an 8-3 decision to Cosmin Cotet and Adrian Simon, the Owls fired back behind No. 3 pair Bruno Rosa and Filip Zivojinovic.

The duo overcame a 6-3 hole and won five straight games for an 8-6 triumph over Zach Nichols and Jack Seider. After a break to go ahead 7-6, Rosa held serve at love aided by a pair of Zivojinovic volleys.

All eyes turned to center court where No. 1 team and No. 25 ranked Ralph Knupfer and Müller overcame an early 3-0 deficit to grab a 6-4 lead against Kriegler Brink and Brighiu. At 7-6 and 40-30, Knupfer executed a serve-and-volley to perfection forcing Brighiu forehand error to give Rice a 1-0 lead.

Knupfer parlayed that momentum into singles and pushed the Owls ahead 2-0 after Brink defaulted with the score 5-5 in the first set of the No. 3 match.

TCU (20-8) stormed back as Simon defeated Zivojinovic 6-2, 6-2 in the No. 5 hole, while No. 39 ranked Cotet knocked off No. 14 ranked Rosa 7-6 (5), 6-0 at the top of the lineup to make it 2-2. At the No. 4 position, Nichols held off Wang 6-4, 7-6 (3) to give the Horned Frogs a 3-2 edge.

Rice squares off with No. 7 Texas Saturday in the second round. First serve against the Longhorns is set for 1pm. RiceOwls.com will provide live scoring along with in-match updates through a live blog.