Feb. 1, 2014
Results
LAFAYETTE, La. – After falling 6-1 to Louisiana earlier in the day, the Lamar men’s tennis team bounced back in the evening to post the same score in a win over Jackson State at UL’s Cajun Courts.
Nikita Lis was the only Cardinal to score in the morning encounter, picking up a 6-5, 6-2 victory over Rick de Groot at No. 1 singles. Lis, a freshman out of Russia, improved his record this spring to a flawless 3-0.
“Nikita came up with a big win vs. a formidable opponent, and he’s really worked on implementing some of the things we’ve been working on,” assistant coach Rob Lee said. “Overall, Louisiana came out strong, and we came out a little flat. We just cannot afford to do that against a team like Louisiana. However, we did improve and were more competitive in the second sets.”
UL got out to a quick start as de Groot and Jake Wynan picked up a 6-2 win in doubles over Lis and Steven McMullan, and the tandem of Damian Farinola and Edgar Lopez followed up with a 6-4 decision vs. Jeandre Hoogenboezem and Mikko Rajamaki to secure the opening tally for the Ragin’ Cajuns.
Lopez would hand Michael Feucht a 6-1, 6-4 decision to double the advantage for the hosts, and Will Huyton moved UL within one of clinching with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over McMullan. Jarred Wynan clinched the match with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Rajamaki.
In other singles action, Jake Wynan beat Carl-Philip Lindqvist 6-4, 6-3, and Farinola won 6-4, 6-5 vs. Juuso Laitinen.
The Cards picked up a lot of momentum early vs. JSU in the evening as the team of Hoogenboezem and Rajamaki as well as that of Trey Crysel and Lindqvist picked up 6-1 doubles victories.
“I thought that we played very efficiently in doubles, and we were able to keep up the intensity into singles,” Lee explained. “That helped us close them out, and the scorelines that we were able to put up will give us some confidence going into Monday’s match vs. UT Arlington.”
Feucht kept the strong form going with a dominating 6-1, 6-1 win over Kashyap Ashok at the top spot, and Laitinen followed suit in the second, beating Ryan Swanier 6-0, 6-1. Lindqvist won by default at No. 3 after grabbing a quick 4-0 lead, and Rajamaki beat Carlos Martinez 6-4, 6-4 at the fourth spot.
Crysel was the only other LU player to pick up a singles victory, earning a second straight with a 6-0, 6-1 decision vs. Marko Milosavljevic.
Hoogenboezem, who was making his singles debut, fell 6-4, 6-2 to Jose Luque.
The Card will return to action on Monday against former conference foe UT Arlington at Thompson Family Tennis Center. First serve has been moved back from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
#PeckEm
