Efe Ustundag

Biography

C-USA Coach of the Year 2016, 2017 AAC Coach of the Year 2025 Ustundag earned Coach of the Year honors for the third time in his career after the Owls rattled off three-straight victories against higher-ranked and higher-seeded teams in the AAC Tournament to capture its first American Athletic Conference championship, becoming the only team in Rice Athletics history to win a conference championship in all four conferences the Owls have been members of (SWC, WAC, C-USA, AAC). The title earned Rice its first back-to-back trips to the NCAA tournament since 2016-17. Ustundag enters his ninth season as the Owls head coach looking for his squad to recapture some of the momentum of the 2018-19 season after seeing the 2020 dual and fall seasons wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Owls return to action for the 2021 dual season after a fall limited to just a pair of matches at the Texas Regional before the team was recalled due to contact tracing. The Owls' 2018-19 season saw them Owls finish at 14-13 and produce the conference player of the year in Sumit Sarkar. Sarkar became only the second Owl to capture C-USA top honor in tennis, joining Bruno Rosa in 2010. He completed his season by earning the Owls’ first NCAA singles berth since Rosa in 2010. A two-time winner of the C-USA Coach of the Year award, Ustundag lead his team to consecutive conference titles in 2016 at George R. Brown and in 2017 when the Owls staged a memorable rally to down ODU in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Th