PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – The Lamar University women's team wasted no time picking up its first victory of the 2017 season posting an impressive 7-0 victory in the season opener at Prairie View A&M Saturday morning, but a road doubleheader at two different venues proved to be too much for the Cardinals. The Red and White dropped the nightcap at Rice, 7-0.
The Cardinals jumped out to a 1-0 lead over Prairie View (0-3) by winning all three doubles matches. LU then turned to its senior class to build an insurmountable lead. Senior
Talisa Merchiers defeated PVAMU's Shaddae Findley, 6-1, 6-2, at No. 4 singles to give LU a 2-0 advantage.
Classmate
Anna Spengler quickly followed with a 6-2, 6-1, decision over Sydney Thomas on court two. Spengler's victory put LU in the driver's seat with four singles matches remaining. The Red and White had a one-set lead in three of the four remaining matches.
Big Red didn't have to wait long to get the match-clinching victory. Freshman
Sanja Jolic locked up the overall win with a 6-1, 6-4 victory at No. 6 singles. The Cardinals closed out the day by taking the final two singles matches, including freshman
Jasmin Buchta who battled back to from an early one-set deficit to knock off Stacy Lackey at No. 3 singles.
After the victory at PVAMU, the Cardinals made the short drive over to the campus at Rice University to take on the Owls. Rice took victories at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles to take an early 1-0 lead. The Owls followed with victories at Nos. 1 and 4 singles to take a 3-0 in the match. LU's Buchta pushed Alison Ho to a third set before getting edged out to close out the victory.
"I'm very proud of how this team competed today," said LU head coach
David Wong. "These young ladies played their hearts out. Against Rice we put ourselves in some good situations but just didn't take advantage. We had several games tied at 3-3 but were unable to pull out a victory. That would have made a huge difference in what turned out to be a very long match."
The Cardinals will return to action Sunday, Jan. 29, when they travel to Denton, Texas to take on North Texas. The match against the Eagles is slated to begin at 11 a.m.
-LU CARDINALS-
