April 9, 2006

BEAUMONT - The Lamar University men's tennis team closed out the 2006 regular season Saturday afternoon, falling to the 34th-ranked Rice Owls 6-1 at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.

The Cardinals started the match by narrowly dropping the doubles point, as Filip Kanczula and Maciej Bogusz cruised to an 8-2 win over Ralph Knupfer and Filip Zivojinovic at No. 1, and Brett Sticker and Tyler Cobb dropped a tie breaker 9-8 to Roland Robb and Robert Searle. At No. 2 doubles the Owls picked up an 8-1 win as Jason Mok and Rodrigo Gabriel took down Evan Hays and Wesley Arnold.

In singles play, Kanczula collected a big win over the No. 35 ranked player in the country, knocking off Searle 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (3).

In the rest of the singes action, the Cards fell in straight sets. Tony Haerle defeated Bogusz 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2, Mok took out Hays 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3, Gabriel downed Arnold 6-1, 6-0 at No. 4, Knupfer defeated Sticker 6-0 6-1 at No. 5 and Christoph Müller dispatched Cobb 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6.

The Cardinals will be in action again on April 28th when they participate in the Southland Conference Tournament, hosted by UT-Arlington.