BEAUMONT, Texas – The 71^st-ranked Lamar University Cardinals men's tennis team held UTSA to three or fewer games in nine of the 15 sets played as they cruised to a 7-0 victory Tuesday afternoon at the Thompson Family Tennis Center. The Cardinals (10-5) moved the match up to a 1 p.m. start from its original scheduled time of 3 p.m. to avoid the possibility of bad weather later in the day.
 
"We played really well today," said head coach Scott Shankles. "Despite their record, you can never look past UTSA. They are always a tough team to face, and they have a new coach this year so we knew they would come into today with a different attitude. Those guys were fighting and never gave up, but I think our guys did a good job early of recognizing we had to stay focused and keep the pressure on UTSA."
 
For a program that had seen very little success against UTSA prior to Shankles' arrival, the Cardinals have now defeated the Roadrunners twice in the past three seasons.
 
"We've got a close-knit team that works really hard every day to get better," said Shankles. "These guys understand what it is that they need to work on match-to-match, they improve upon it and put that into play the next opportunity they get. I think this shows that our program is making progress and we continue to get better. For the guys, it's a good feeling to beat a former conference member that used to beat us every time."
 
The Cardinals didn't even need their nationally ranked doubles team of Michael Feucht and Benny Schweizer to claim the doubles point. Big Red took the first victory of the day when the team of Juuso Laitinen and Sebastian Santibanez recorded a 6-3 victory over UTSA's Joao Riquelme and Christian Carrillo at the No. 3 spot. Juniors Jeandre Hoogenboezem and Nikita Lis clinched the point moments later with a 6-4 decision at line two doubles.
 
LU turned up the pressure following the break picking up three easy singles victories to clinch the match The Red and White surrendered only a total of 11 games in those three matches. Feucht ousted the Roadrunners Diogo Casa, 6-1, 6-3, at No. 1 singles, followed by Laitinen's 6-3, 6-1, victory over Fabian Brand at the No. 6 position.
 
Santibanez put the victory away with his dominating performance at No. 3 singles. Santibanez was never seriously threatened in his match dropping Riquelme 6-2 in the opening set. LU's freshman took even less time in the second set recording a 6-1 victory.
 
With the overall team victory locked away, the rest of the Cardinals' lineup began putting their matches away. Hoogenboezem flipped the tables on his opponent in the second set. After pulling out a clutch victory in a tiebreak in the opening set, the South African native never allowed his opponent to get going in the second posting a 6-0 victory at No. 5 singles.
 
Lis added to the Cardinals lead with a similar match to Hoogenboezem but in reverse order. Lis defeated the 'Runners Buchalter, 6-1, 7-5, at the No. 2 spot. Sophomore Benny Schweizer closed out the match with the most contested battle of the day. Schweizer picked up a 7-5, 7-5 victory UTSA's Christian Carrillo at No. 4 singles to end the day.
 
The Cardinals return to Southland action Friday when they travel to New Orleans, La. to take on the Privateers. The match against UNO is slated to begin at 2 p.m.
  
Singles
1. Michael Feucht (LU) def. Diogo Casa (UTSA), 6-1, 6-3
2. Nikita Lis (LU) def. Eric Buchalter (UTSA), 6-1, 7-5
3. Sebastian Santibanez (LU) def. Joao Riquelme  (UTSA), 6-2, 6-1
4. Benny Schweizer (LU) def. Christian Carrillo (UTSA), 7-5, 7-5
5. Jeandre Hoogenboezem (LU) def. Takeru Watanabe (UTSA), 7-6, 6-0
6. Juuso Laitinen (LU) def. Fabian Brand (UTSA), 6-3, 6-1
 
Doubles
1. Casa/Brand (UTSA) vs. #43 Feucht/Schweizer (LU), 4-5 Unf.
2. Hoogenboezem/Lis (LU) def. Buchalter/Watanabe (UTSA), 6-4
3. Laitinen/Santibanez (LU) def. Riquelme/Carrillo (UTSA), 6-3