Box Score BEAUMONT, Texas – The home portion of the 2018 schedule did not get out to the start that the youthful Lamar University men's tennis team wanted Friday afternoon falling to Denver, 6-1, on a cold, windy afternoon at the Thompson Family Tennis Center. The loss drops Big Red to 0-3 on the season, with all three of its losses to start the year coming to teams who participated in the 2018 NCAA Championships.
 
"We didn't come out strong on all three doubles courts – Denver did and they won the point," said LU head coach Scott Shankles. "It was close and we had some chances but we got down early. When you lose the doubles point you almost always have to start strong on at least four of the singles courts and we started strong on three of the six. Denver played good and played with confidence, and I don't think we had the same level of confidence. At the end of the day, Denver player very well and deserved to win."
 
The doubles point came down to the second match of the afternoon. After the Pioneers picked up a 6-3 victory on court No. 1, they only needed to take one of the final two matches for the point. The other two matches were close with neither team able to gain a sizeable cushion. The Cardinals' duo of senior Benny Schweizer and freshman Nicolas Mayr grabbed a lead late, 6-5, on court No. 2, but the match was halted when freshmen Roy Stepanov and Carlos Paton Canal were edged out by Denver's Wyatt Lovera and Fernandez Del Valle on court three.
 
Opening the singles competition down a point, the Cardinals tried to battle their way back from the early deficit but Denver struck first in singles play. The Pioneers grabbed a straight-sets victory on court No. 5 to take a two-point lead, 2-0.
 
The Red and White cracked the scoreboard at No. 2 singles where Schweizer posted a victory in straight sets over the Pioneers' Matt Summers. Schweizer recorded scores of 6-3 and 6-4 for the victory.
 
Just a point back of their guests, the Cardinals were looking for another point to tie the match, and had three matches forced to a third set – courts one, four and six. While those three courts were heading to a third set, the Pioneers pushed their lead back to two with a win on court three.
 
Unfortunately, court No. 4 was the next one off as Denver's Sean Huynh rallied from an opening set loss to defeat Mayr, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, to lock up the team match. Denver closed out the scoring with victories on courts one and six respectively.
 
The Cardinals return to action Saturday for two matches beginning at 10 a.m. The first match of the doubleheader will be against Oral Roberts, followed by a 2 p.m. match against Prairie View A&M.
 
-LU CARDINALS-