BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University's four seniors made sure the fans had plenty to cheer about on senior day as they closed the home portion of the 2017 schedule with a shutout victory over Nicholls, 7-0, Sunday afternoon from the Thompson Family Tennis Center.
"Senior Day contests are always tough because you never know where everyone's emotional state will be," said LU head coach
David Wong. "I thought our girls handled the emotions of the day very well – when they stepped on the court they were ready to play.
"Nicholls' record is in no way indicative of how tough a team they really are. They have lost a lot of very close matches this season. I thought we played one of our better matches of the season today. It was nice to see our team rebound the way we did after Saturday's disappointment," said Wong.
The doubles point had some added excitement as the two teams split decision on courts two and three with the Cardinals (14-7/6-3 Southland) taking the victory at line two. That placed the outcome of the point squarely on court one, which would turn out to be the closest doubles match of the day.
With the other two courts having nearly 20 minutes earlier, all the players gathered around the last remaining court. The Cardinals duo of seniors
Katya Lapayeva and
Anna Spengler took a one-game lead, 5-4, and immediately ended all the suspense by taking the 10
th game over Nicholls' Lingfeng Gu and Clemence Krug.
The Cardinals seized on the momentum turning in two quick victories in singles play. Senior
Hanna Elfving gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead with a 6-1, 6-0, victory at No. 6 singles. Elfving's strong performance came following a day off from singles competition against McNeese. The added rest was evident on the court as she never allowed the Colonels' Andrea Mastrippolito to get settled into the contest.
Freshman
Sanja Jolic recorded a nearly identical score at No. 4 singles. Jolic wasted little time taking an early lead with a 6-1 score in the opening set. That victory seemed to knock the fight out of Nicholls' Mariia Kozachok as she fell by the same score in the second set.
With a commanding 3-0 lead, the Cardinals needed just one more victory to win the team match. Of the four remaining courts, Big Red won two of the first sets, with the two setbacks – Lapayeva and
Jasmin Buchta – forcing their opponents into a third set.
The Red and White didn't have to wait long for the team victory as Spengler bounced her opponent with a similar score to that of the two previously finished matches. Spengler defeated Krug in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0.
Following Spengler's victory, the Cardinals would have to wait to celebrate as courts 1, 3 and 5 went to third sets. As Lapayeva and Buchta rallied from opening-set losses to take third-set victories, senior
Talisa Merchiers dropped a tough second set in the tiebreak, 7-6 (7-5), to be pushed into a third set.
With all the fans having shifted over to court No. 5, Merchiers made her final home match one to remember. After dropping a heartbreaking second set, Merchiers found herself tied at 3 in the super tiebreak with Changwei Wei.
The match was tied at four when Merchiers put some separation between herself and Wei leading 7-4. Wei didn't fold cutting the deficit to one point, 8-7. As if the third set super tiebreak wasn't long enough, Wei tied the match up at 10. The longest match of the day ended when Merchiers closed the day with the final two points for the Senior Day shutout.
The Cardinals return to action Friday when they travel to Hammond, La. to take on Southeastern Louisiana. The match against the Lions is slated to begin at noon.
-LU CARDINALS-
