Sept. 22, 2014
HOUSTON – The Lamar University men’s tennis team had a solid weekend at the Rice Fall Invitational.
Lamar’s Nikita Lis reached the semifinals in the singles competition, while Lamar’s two doubles teams went undefeated.
“I’m very proud with our overall performance,” Lamar coach Scott Shankles said. “We played a lot of good tennis and posted some quality wins.”
Lis went 4-1 in his singles matches on the weekend. He opened with a 3-6, 6-2, 10-5 win over Yannick Junger of UTSA. That was followed with a pair of victories over Nebraska Cornhuskers. Lis took a 6-3, 6-3 win over Ford Zitsch before dispatching of top-seeded Dusty Boyer 6-2, 3-6, 10-8. Boyer was ranked 64th in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
Lis rallied for a 2-6, 7-5, 11-9 win over Jason Jaruvang of Arizona in the quarterfinals before being edged by Rice’s David Warren 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3).
“Nikita had an excellent tourney,” Shankles said. “For him to beat players from the power conferences is very impressive.”
Lamar’s Jeandre Hoogenboezem bounced back from an opening-round loss to post a pair of wins in the consolation bracket before falling in the consolation quarterfinals. Hoogenboezem claimed wins over Carlos Arbiza of UT Arlington and Carlos Bermudez of Arizona before falling to Tito Moreiras of UTSA.
“I was very pleased with Jeandre’s solid play against tough opponents,” Shankles said.
The doubles competition was never concluded because of rain. Lamar’s two teams were scheduled to meet each other in the semifinals when the competition was halted.
“We were guaranteed to have a team in the finals,” Shankles said. “It’s disappointing that we couldn’t get the matches completed, but I couldn’t be more pleased with how we played.”
Hoogenboezem teamed with Juuso Laitinen for a pair of wins, including a 6-5 (0) victory over the second-seeded Texas Tech tandem of Jolan Cailleau and Alex Buzelan.
Lis combined with Michael Feucht for win over doubles teams from Arizona, Texas Tech and Nebraska.
“I couldn’t ask for anything else from our doubles teams,” Shankles said. “They were tremendous.”
The Cardinals return to action when they host the Ron Wesbrooks Invitational from Oct. 3-5 at the Thompson Family Tennis Center on the Lamar campus. Admission is free.
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