COLLEGE STATION, Texas—The No. 25 –ranked Texas A&M men’s tennis team will host the Rice Owls, ranked No. 39 in the latest poll, in a dual match on Wednesday, Apr. 4 with first serve set for 6 p.m. at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center on the Texas A&M campus.
The Aggies are 11-9 on the year and 1-1 in Big 12 play after splitting a pair of matches against No. 13-ranked OU and Oklahoma State. The Rice Owls are 15-5 on the season and they swept TCU and SMU this past weekend in the Metroplex by identical 4-3 scores.
Last year, the Aggies went to Houston and posted a 6-1 win over the Owls with Colin Hoover, a senior from Victoria, Texas, picking up a win at the No. 4 singles and Niall Angus, a junior from London, England, earning a point at No. 6 singles.
“We always have tight matches with Rice,” Aggie head coach Steve Denton said. “They have been a very good team for a long time and this team is no different. This is an important nonconference match for us to get back on track and gain some team confidence.”
“Last Friday night we paid tribute to one of the great tennis coaches in James Wadley of OSU,” Denton added. “Tomorrow night we get to pay tribute to another coaching legend in Ron Smarr of Rice who has announced his retirement at the end of the season. Both of these gentlemen have been great for our sport.”
Smarr is the winningest coach in collegiate with 870 wins coming into Wednesday’s match. This marks his 42nd season to coach collegiate tennis and his 15th at Rice University.

After this match, the Aggies will hit the road to face Texas Tech at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Apr. 7.