TULSA, Okla. – The Lamar University men's tennis team stepped on the court for the second time in less than 24 hours to close out its current five-match win streak with a 9 a.m. contest at Oral Roberts Sunday. It appeared early that the long trip had taken its toll on the Cardinals as the hosts raced out to an early 3-0 advantage, but with their backs against the wall Big Red rallied to score the final four points for the 4-3 win.
The victory moves LU back to the .500 mark on the season (4-4), while Oral Roberts falls to 4-3 (.571).
Save for the match at No. 6 singles, every set seemed to go down to the wire before being decided. There was only one shutout set and that belonged to junior
Logan Powell at No. 6 singles, but even that didn't come until the end of the match.
"Perseverance was the key to today's match," said LU head coach
Scott Shankles. "Oral Roberts is a tough team that keeps getting better every year. I'm proud of the fight and spirit to come back from being down 3-0. Good win against a good team today."
ORU took the match's first point of the day by winning at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles. The Eagles recorded a tiebreaker on court three, which could've completely swung the early momentum of the match because the Cardinals were all tied up at 6-6 on court one when played was halted.
Things didn't get better for the Cards early in the singles competition either. ORU picked up wins on courts 4 and 3, respectively, to take a 3-0 lead in the match. The one LU bright spot came from the fact that Big Red won four of the first six singles sets, the biggest of which came on court five.
Although he may not have realized it at the time senior
Juuso Laitinen may have turned the match in LU's favor with his tiebreak victory in the first set at No. 5 singles. Laitinen would go on to win the second set by a score of 6-4 which would tie the match at 3-3. Laitinen's win came on the heels of classmates
Michael Feucht and
Nikita Lis' wins at Nos. 1 and 2 singles, respectively.
That left the overall outcome squarely on the shoulders of Powell. After his 6-2 victory in the opening set, Powell left no doubt in second set by racing to the 6-0 win.
The Cardinals return to action Friday when they host Southern Miss. The match against the Eagles is slated to begin at 2 p.m. from the Thompson Family Tennis Center.
-LU CARDINALS-
