No. 29 Red Raiders to Play Trio of Matches at Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational

LUBBOCK, Texas - The No. 29 ranked Texas Tech men's tennis team will play three matches to complete their non-conference schedule as they take on Dartmouth, Utah State and Rice at the 61st Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational in Houston, Texas.

Tech will play a three game slate over a span of two days, beginning with a match against Dartmouth on Friday at 10 a.m. CT.

LAST TIME OUT
The Red Raiders return to the state of Texas following a road match against then No. 33 ranked UCF in Orlando. Tech jumped out to an early 1-0 match advantage by securing the doubles point with 6-4 and 6-3 wins on courts two and three, respectively.

In singles play, the Red Raiders fell behind early by dropping their first two singles matches. However, they would eventually bounce back, beginning with a win on court three by sophomore Ilgiz Valiev, who captured a 7-6(4), 6-4 straight-set advantage to tie the match at two points. No. 108 Parker Wynn seized the next point for Tech with a straight-set victory of his own. The final and decisive match point came from freshman Franco Ribero, who defeated his opponent in a second-set tiebreaker, giving Tech a 4-2 match win.

RED RAIDERS IN THE RANKINGS
The Oracle/ITA rankings were updated for the week of March 19th and feature a familiar duo of Red Raiders.

Bjorn Thomson and Wynn held their top-10 status with a No. 9 ranking, while Wynn himself moved into the top-100 singles players at the No. 99 slot.

In the team rankings, Tech improved to No. 29 from their previous ranking of 32.

QUICK HITS
Ribero has continued to impress in his first year as a Red Raider. He is 11-2 on the year in singles play, and has been a reliable force at the anchor position with two match-clinching victories during non-conference play.

Head coach Brett Masi has found success in doubles play by pairing Valiev with Matheus Leite, as the tandem is now 5-0 on the season, dating back to their first appearance against Arizona on February 22nd.

Valiev himself has also provided consistency on the singles end, as he is 4-0 in his last four matches and 6-2 in his last 10. Only Wynn has a longer winning streak at 5-0.

The Red Raiders will look to replicate the success they had earlier in the season, as they took down the Rice Owls by a score of 4-2 at the 2019 Blue Gray National Tennis Classic. Tech will play Rice on Saturday at 12 p.m. CT.

LIVE RESULTS
Fans are encouraged to follow along with all of this weekend's action at the tournament homepage. Both live stats and live video will be available for all matches.

UP NEXT
The Red Raiders will open up their five-game conference stretch against Texas in Austin on Friday, March 29th. Tech will then travel to Fort Worth to take on TCU before returning home to finish the year with a three-game home stand, beginning on April 5th.

FOLLOW THE RED RAIDERS
Visit www.TexasTech.com for the latest news and information on the Texas Tech men's tennis program. Fans are also encouraged to follow the program on its social media outlets at www.facebook.com/techmenstennis and @TexasTechMTEN on Twitter and Instagram.

Texas Tech University Athletics

No. 29 Red Raiders to Play Trio of Matches at Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational

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Players Mentioned

Matheus Leite

Franco Ribero

Bjorn Thomson

Ilgiz Valiev

Parker Wynn

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