BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University's seven-match win streak came to an end as the Cardinals dropped a 5-2 decision against Sam Houston State from the Thompson Family Tennis Center Saturday afternoon. The loss not only ended the Cards' (13-5/5-2 Southland) win streak, but it was the team's first blemish of the season at home (8-1).
The loss also bumped the Cardinals out of a three-way tie for first place in the league standings. LU now sits a game back of Abilene Christian and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the loss column with four matches left conference matches remaining.
Entering the day, the contest appeared to be a showdown of two evenly matched teams on paper, and the scores on each court reflected that. Three of the first four singles matches went to a third set, while three sets went to a tiebreak before being decided.
The doubles competition foreshadowed how the whole match would turn out. After the Bearkats (7-10/4-3 SLC) recorded a 6-1 decision on court one, the Cardinals evened things out with a win on court No. 3, which placed all focus on No. 2 doubles.
Line two was a close match that saw SHSU take a two-game lead, only to have the Cardinals cut it back to one. The duo of junior
Stephanie Marchena and senior
Talisa Merchiers were trailing 5-3, needing a win to keep the match alive. LU took the ninth game trimming the deficit to 5-4, but the visitors held on to win the 10
th and final game.
Holding a one-point advantage, the Bearkats stormed out of the gate in singles play taking the first set on four of the six courts. Sam Houston State held their leads on courts five and six to build a three-point advantage, 3-0.
Facing elimination, the Cardinals began to battle back. Each of the remaining courts tightened as LU attempted to do its guests what SHSU had done to the Cardinals the year prior. In that match, LU jumped out to a 3-0 lead, before Sam Houston rallied to tie it.
Trailing by a set and facing defeat, senior
Katya Lapayeva, battled back to force a tiebreak in the second set. While Lapayeva was trying to force a third set, freshman
Sanja Jolic was trying to battle back in the third after dropping the second.
In similar fashion, senior
Anna Spengler was trying to pick up a three-set win, but she rallied in the second after dropping heartbreaking opening set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-2). Both Jolic and Spengler would record victories in the third set to put points on the board, but it came too late as the SHSU picked up the deciding point at No. 1 singles.
Sam Houston State closed out the match by taking the final point on court No. 3.
The Cardinals have no time to focus on Saturday's setback as they will be in Houston Sunday afternoon to take on the University of Houston. The match against the Cougars will begin at 2 p.m.
-LU CARDINALS-
