BEAUMONT, Texas – Mother Nature tried her best to prevent Lamar University and UTSA from squaring off Saturday afternoon, but the two schools finally got the match in. After a rain delay that lasted more than three hours, the Cardinals defeated UTSA, 4-0, Saturday afternoon at the Thompson Family Tennis Center.
"I felt like our guys did a really good job sticking with what we work on every day in practice," said LU head coach
Scott Shankles. "We opened the match just a little flat in doubles, but we turned it around after the first seven minutes. That really helped us going forward through the rest of the match."
The Cardinals won the doubles point by defeating UTSA on courts one and three. Big Red then turned to the top of its lineup to bring home the victory.
Senior
Jeandre Hoogenboezem scored the Cardinals second point of the match with his straight-sets victory at No. 2 singles. Hoogenboezem recorded scores of 6-3, 6-3 over the Roadrunners' Juri Reckow to give Big Red a 2-0 advantage. Hoogenboezem was one of four Cardinals to win their opening set as LU was aiming for its third consecutive victory.
Sophomore
Sebastian Santibanez put the Cards just one-point shy of that victory with his 6-3, 6-1 decision on court No. 3. Santibanez had little trouble putting away UTSA's Patrick Poestinger for the point.
Senior
Nikita Lis scored the deciding point when he ended his match with a straight-sets victory over the 'Runners' Kai Breitbach, 6-4, 6-3. Lis' win at No. 1 singles halted the other three matches still in progress as the coaches decided prior to the match to stop play after the fourth point was won.
"UTSA is a very good team," said Shankles. "He has quite a bit of talent on his squad but they are very young and inexperienced. I think you will see that team accomplish a lot but they are very young still, and we are fortunate to have a senior laden squad this season."
The Cardinals close out the month of March against New Orleans. The match against the Privateers will begin at 3 p.m. Friday from the Thompson Family Tennis Center.
-LU CARDINALS-
