BATON ROUGE, La. – Lamar University's men's tennis team jumped out to a 1-0 lead at LSU Tuesday evening but was unable to hold the lead in singles play dropping a 5-2 decision to the Tigers. The loss drops the Cardinals to 6-5 one season and brings to an end the team's modest three match win streak.
 
"We are very disappointed with the outcome today," said LU head coach Scott Shankles. "We got out to a strong start in doubles, but followed that up with slow starts in five of the singles matches. Our guys really battled hard but we dug ourselves to deep of a hole. There are big lessons learned from today that we can take with us."
 
The Cardinals jumped out to a great start in doubles play. Big Red was well on its way to sweeping all three doubles matches before the third match was halted after LU took the first two victories. The team of seniors Jeandre Hoogenboezem and Nikita Lis defeated LSU's Jordan Daigle and Julian Saborio, 6-4. Senior Juuso Laitinen and Logan Powell closed out the doubles point with their tiebreaking victory over the Tigers' Rafael Wagner and Nikola Samardzic, 7-6 (7-2), on court three.
 
Senior Michael Feucht and junior Benny Schweizer had a 6-5 lead on court five when the match was suspended.
 
The Cardinals had the momentum heading into singles play, but the Tigers quickly turned the tables. LSU got out to quick starts on five of the singles courts and turned a one-point deficit into a one-point advantage after wins on courts two and three.
 
Big Red looked to pull back even on court No. 4 where sophomore Sebastian Santibanez was locked in a close battle with LSU's Nikola Samardzic. Samardzic pulled out a close victory in set one, 6-4, and had to put out the same effort to record a victory in the second set. Samardzic's 6-4, 6-4, win put LSU within a point of the overall match title with three singles matches remaining.
 
Senior Juuso Laitinen forced his match to a third set on court five, while Feucht was trying to force his match to a third being locked in a tough second set battle. Laitenen prevailed for the Cardinals on court five picking up a 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, victory over Gabor Csonka. Unfortunately, Laitinen's win came just moments after Feucht's attempt at forcing a third set came up short to Daigle at No. 1 singles, 6-3, 7-6 (10-8). LSU closed out the match with a three-set victory on court six for the final score.
 
The Cardinals return to action Sunday when it travels to Prairie View A&M to take on the Panthers in a doubleheader. The first match is slated to begin at 10 a.m., with the second slated to get under way at 2 p.m.
 
-LU CARDINALS-