BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University kept its perfect Southland Conference record intact defeating New Orleans, 6-1, Friday afternoon at the Thompson Family Tennis Center. The victory allows the Cardinals to keep pace with the other league undefeated teams while improving to 13-6 on the season and 2-0 in conference play.
 
The victory pushes Big Red's current win streak to four, and their home win streak to 14 consecutive.
 
Winners in seven of their past eight matches, the Cardinals took the first lead of the day following a dominating performance in doubles. LU outscored the Privateers (6-8/2-2 SLC), 12-4 in the first two doubles matches, to score the point.
 
"UNO is a very tough team," said LU head coach Scott Shankles. "They're a team that always plays tough, never gives in. That is exactly what we got from them today. We knew that going in, and talked about it coming into the match. We knew we had to take care of what happened on our side of the court and good things would happen."
 
The one-point lead seemed to take all pressure off the Red and White as they began took an opening-set on all six singles courts. Senior Jeandre Hoogenboezem gave the Cards a two-point lead with his victory at No. 3 singles. Hoogenboezem ousted UNO's Federico Staksrud, 6-4, 6-0. Just moments later junior Benny Schweizer gave LU a commanding three-point advantage with four matches remaining. Schweizer defeated the Privateers' Giacomo Adonececchi, 6-1, 6-2, on court six.   
 
Despite taking leads on all six courts, things became tougher on the Cards in the second sets as UNO battled back to take set victories on courts 4 and 5.
 
Seeking the knockout punch, the Cardinals turned to another senior, Nikita Lis, to deliver the blow. Lis came through with a 6-3, 6-4 decision to hand the Cards their 13^th win of the season.
 
The Privateers finally got on the scoreboard with a victory the No. 5 position, but it was too little, too late. The minor setback was the only dent in the scoring column against LU as the home team closed with wins on courts 1 (Michael Feucht) and 4 (Sebastian Santibanez).
 
"I think we're in a really good place right now," said Shankles. "We had a really tough non-conference schedule. We played some really good teams winning a lot of those matches, but we also lost some as well. I believe that is helping us during our conference schedule."
 
The Cardinals were originally scheduled to return to action Sunday for their home finale against UT Arlington, but due to the expected rain in Beaumont the two schools have decided to move the match to a different date. That date has not yet been released. That match will serve as the Cardinals senior day contest.
 
-LU CARDINALS-