Rice’s Barker twins enter season ranked No. 1 doubles tandem

Rice’s Barker twins enter season ranked No. 1 doubles
tandem
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A No. 1 national
ranking and three players in the top 50 highlight the return
to action for Rice men’s tennis heading into the spring
season.

Juniors Richard
and William Barker will pick up right where they left off,
starting the season ranked No. 1 in the country after capturing
the 2002 Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships
doubles title in November.

It was the first
indoor national men’s doubles title in Rice history.

The Barker twins
also are both individually rated in the top 50 singles rankings,
with Richard ranked 28th to start the season and William
coming in at No. 49.

Rice’s highest
ranked singles player is freshman Robert Searle.

Searle begins
the spring ranked 16th in the country after finishing the
fall with a 14-2 singles record.

Rice also garnered
a top 50 ranking as a team, falling into the No. 36 slot
in the Omni Hotels collegiate tennis rankings.

The Barkers continued
their success this season with a convincing 8-2 win over
the fifth-ranked Texas A&M doubles combo of Lester Cook
and Ante Matijevic at The Met/Rice University Indoor Tennis
Tournament Sunday afternoon at the Downtown Club.

William Barker
also competed in the singles final earlier in the day, falling
4-6, 6-3, 2-6 to seventh-seeded Matias Marin of Baylor.

The Owls also
picked up two wins in a dual match against the universities
of Nebraska and New Orleans Monday. The men’s tennis
squad won both matches by 6-1 counts.
Complete results of the tennis weekend can be found at <www.riceowls.com>.

The women’s
tennis spring season kicks off Feb. 1 against the University
of Louisiana-Lafayette at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.