Box Score HOUSTON, Texas – Lamar University's youthful women's tennis team was unable to overcome a slow start falling to Rice, 7-0, Saturday afternoon at the George R. Brown Tennis Center. It was a tough opening match for a Cardinals' lineup that consisted of four freshmen.
 
"Rice is a top 30 or top 40 team, so that is a very talented squad we faced today," said LU head coach David Wong. "We made some unforced errors and that came from us being a little tight, but I think that is to be expected with such a young squad. I'm proud of how we fought throughout the match. This is something that we can learn from and get better moving forward. Obviously, as a coach, we're in the business of winning, but having said that I'm not disappointed at all with our effort today."
 
Rice's advantage in experience showed in the opening moments of the match. The Cardinals dropped all three matches to surrender the point taking only one game on the three courts.
 
Despite the doubles' setback, the three matches seemed to settle the nerves as LU opened singles with a renewed intensity. Sophomore Jasmin Buchta was fighting to tie the match against Rice's Wendy Zhang at No. 1 singles. After forcing Wendy Zheng into a tiebreak, Buchta was able to grab a brief lead but was edged out, 7-6 (7-4).
 
Buchta battled back in the second set to record a 7-5 decision setting up the super tiebreak. Just like the previous two sets, the final came right down to the wire but Zhang escaped with a 10-8 decision for the win.
 
Sophomore Sanja Jolic was locked in a similar battle against Rice's Priya Niezgoda at No. 3 singles. Niezgoda was able to survive the opening set with a 7-5 victory. Jolic was unable to recover in the second dropping a 7-5, 6-2 decision as the Owls were able to close out the day with wins on the other four courts.
 
The Cardinals return to action Sunday to take on Houston. The match has been moved to 4 p.m. on the indoor courts of the Lifetime Racquet Club in the Galleria.
 
-LU CARDINALS-