Feb. 25, 2005
Results
BEAUMONT - A six-match winning streak for the Lamar men's tennis team came to an end Friday morning, as Texas-Arlington snuck past the Cardinals, 5-2, in both teams' Southland Conference opener at the Cardinal Courts.
Lamar slipped to 7-5 overall and 0-1 in league action, while UTA improved to 2-3 on the year with a 1-0 SLC record. The Cardinals return to action on Mar. 14 with a 2 p.m. SLC road match at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana.
In Friday's match, the Cardinals pulled off their first doubles sweep of the season, taking all three matches in the tandem portion of the match. The LU win trio was highlighted by an upset victory at the No. 1 position, where seniors Dean Clower and Ignacio Melus picked off UTA's nationally-ranked duo of Sandy Farquharson and Niels Buksik, 9-8. With the match tied at eight games apiece, Clower and Melus used a 7-2 tiebreaker to win the match and extend their winning streak to nine.
Seniors Juan Pablo Alatorre and Emilio Kirby added to their five-match winning streak in the No. 2 spot with an 8-5 win over the Mavs' second-seeded team. Senior Christian Olivier and David Wanja stayed undefeated with a convincing 8-4 win at the No. 3, taking down UTA's Josey Trimmier and Alberto Agis.
After earning the doubles point, the Cardinals seemed poised to upset the perennial conference contender, but a pair of tough three-set loses sent the win in UTA's favor. LU's Alatorre, a native of Mexico City, Mexico, lost a close match in straight sets at the No. 1, 6-4 and 7-5. Freshman Emmanuel Olivier and Wanja also lost in straight sets at the No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.
Kirby, a product of Neuquen, Argentina, turned in Lamar's only singles win after outlasting UTA's Buksik in a pair of tiebreakers. After battling to 6-6 ties in both sets, Kirby pulled out wins with an 8-6 tiebreaker in the first set and a 9-7 victory in the second. While Kirby was able to up his record to 6-5 on the year, the other two Cardinals lost in heart-breaking fashion.
Melus lost the first set of his No. 3 singles match, 6-4, to Diego Mattar, before rebounding with a 7-5 win in the second set. With the score tied 6-6 in the third set, Mattar squeezed past the Arica, Chile native 7-5 in the tiebreaker.
Clower's match also went three sets at the No. 4, but the Broken Arrow native saw his seven-match winning streak come to an end. UTA's Alberto Agis came back from a 7-5 first set loss to post back-to-back 6-4 victories in the second and third set. Despite the loss, Clower continues to lead the Cardinals with a 7-3 singles record for the spring.
