March 26, 2011

Box Score

BEAUMONT, Texas - The Lamar University men's team notched its first Southland Conference victory in three seasons with a 4-3 win over visiting Texas-Pan American on Saturday.

Lamar (7-8 overall, 1-1 SLC) dropped the doubles point and matches at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, but picked up wins at third through sixth singles to record the win.

"I've never been more proud of these guys than I am today," Lamar coach Scott Shankles said. "The guys worked so hard in practice and wanted to get our first conference win since 2008."

The Cardinals had not won a conference match since a 5-2 victory over Nicholls on April 6, 2008.

"We played to win, the way we need to play every time out," said Shankles, who is in his first year as Lamar's coach. "We went after our opportunities and took it from them."

Carlos Valdenebro, Marton Horvath, Dusan Savkovic and Diego Snyder won singles matches for the Cardinals.

UTPA fell to 1-7 overall and 1-1 in conference play.

Lamar returns to action with a conference match at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 11 a.m. Thursday.

"The guys are now hungry and confident going into the match at Corpus Christi," Shankles said.

LAMAR