Feb. 12, 2012

Box Score

BEAUMONT, Texas - Carlos Valdenebro's three-set win over Guilherme Gesser at No. 5 singles lifted the Lamar University men's tennis team to a 4-3 win over visiting Abilene Christian in a non-conference match Sunday afternoon.

The Valdenebro-Gesser match was the only one still going with the team score tied at 3. Valdenebro posted a 6-1 win in the first set, only to lose the second set 6-7 (4). The deciding set also came down to a tiebreaker, with Valdenebro emerging with a 7-6 (4) win after being down 5-2 in the third set to give Lamar (1-2) its first victory of the season.

"The highlight of the match was that Carlos battled back from having three match points against him to give us the win," Lamar coach Scott Shankles said. "I could not be more proud of him. It's one reason he's one of my captains. He's by far the hardest worker on the team."

Robert Lee and Marton Horvath also won singles matches for Lamar. The Cardinals opened the match by earning the doubles point by taking two of the three doubles matches. Lee and Horvath won at No. 1 doubles, while Valdenebro teamed with Denis Ermilov to win at No. 2 doubles.

"Another big reason we won was this week's practices," Shankles said. "After losing to SMU, the guys worked extra hard to prepare for Abilene Christian, and it paid off."

Abilene Christian, which advanced to the NCAA Division II quarterfinals last season, fell to 4-4.

Lamar returns to action at Prairie View A&M at 1 p.m. Saturday in a non-conference match.

LAMAR