Oct. 5, 2014 BEAUMONT, Texas - Lamar sophomore Nikita Lis had to fight his way through a couple of three-set matches to earn a berth in Sunday's Ron Wesbrooks Flight One Singles Championship against Texas-Pan American's Juan Cruz-Soria. But, for all the drama involved in Lis' path to the finals, the match itself was anticlimactic as Lis dispensed of his opponent, 6-1, 6-1.

Regardless of the score, the victory was no less exciting for Lis who exacted some revenge on Soria, who defeated the Lamar sophomore last season. Lis finished the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record.

Overall, the Cardinals placed three individuals in the championship match of their respective flights with Lis coming away with a title. Sophomore Juuso Laitinen and junior Steven McMullan advanced to the flight two and flight three championships, respectively.

"I thought we had a good weekend of matches," said head coach Scott Shankles. "We did really well in singles advancing three guys into the finals. Overall in doubles we did a little better than I think some were expecting us to. If you combine the performances on both sides we had a really strong weekend."

Sophomore Juuso Laitinen earned his way to the flight two title match by posting a perfect 3-0 record in pool play. Laitinen faced Texas-Pan American's Koby Jansen in the finals. Although it was a close, Laitinen fell short, 6-4, 6-4, in the match.

It was a similar situation for junior Steven McMullan in the third flight. After posting a 3-0 record, McMullan squared off against Tyler Junior College's Jonah Candelario. McMullan advanced to the championship match after defeating Monte Alvarez-Hevia in a tough three-set semifinal match, while Candelario was playing on fresher legs receiving a first-round bye and winning his next two matches in straight sets. McMullan forced the match to three sets but ran out of gas in the end falling 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.

"Nikita, Juuso and Steven had some very tough singles matches and had to battle hard all weekend," said Shankles. "Each one of them had to fight through at least one three-setter, while Lis and McMullan each played a couple of three-set matches. I was proud of how they fought and put themselves in a position to win.

"When all is said and done Nikita played an unbelievable match in the finals. He only had four, maybe five, unforced errors," added Shankles.

Sophomore Jeandre Hoogenboezem and Laitinen teamed up in doubles play, and just missed out a spot in the finals Saturday. The LU duo rebounded Sunday picking up a 6-2 victory over UTPA's Hector Ramirez and Alejandro Sanoja to take the third-place match.

Overall, the Cardinals finished the weekend with a 17-7 (.708) overall singles record, and went 7-4 (.636) in doubles play.

The Cardinals close out the fall portion of the schedule at the ITA Regional Championships. The regionals will begin Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014 and run through Monday, Oct. 20.

-LAMAR-