BEAUMONT, Texas – Youth was served Saturday afternoon as the Lamar University men's tennis team defeated Alcorn State, 6-1, at the Thompson Family Tennis Center. The Cardinals (5-10) have now won their previous two matches.
The Cardinals jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never allowed Alcorn State an opportunity to steal away the momentum. It was Big Red's youth that led the way Saturday as they go singles victories from three freshmen, including the first two wins of the day, to pick up the overall team win.
"It was a tough turnaround playing yesterday in New Orleans, and then immediately coming back to host Alcorn State," said LU head coach
Scott Shankles. "It's just the way we had to schedule it this year, but I'm proud of how our guys kept their energy level up. They have really been focused on what they need to do as a team and things really fell into place today."
Alcorn jumped out of the gate quickly at No. 1 singles to take an early lead on their court, but struggled to figure things out on courts two and three. LU got doubles' wins from Logan Powell and Benny Schweizer on court two, followed by a victory on court three from Nicolas Mayr and Roy Stepanov, to take a 1-0 lead.
"College tennis is played under the team umbrella, and doubles was a classic example of that today," said Shankles. "If one team is struggling, you need the other two teams to play well to get the point. That is what happened today. Alcorn was very solid on court No. 1 and they deserved the win. We were really strong on the other two courts and fortunately got the point."
Mayr and classmate Arthur Serafim turned the 1-0 advantage into an insurmountable lead with their wins on courts 5 and 3, respectively. Mayr quickly defeated the Braves' Ivan Matas, 6-1, 6-0, for the 2-0 lead. Serafim followed suit with a straight-sets decision over Alcorn's Johnatan Parat, 6-2, 6-4, at the No. 3 position.
Alcorn State cracked the scoreboard following their victory at No. 2 singles, but the Cardinals quickly ended any thoughts of a comeback when they followed suit with a win on court No. 1. Junior Sebastian Santibanez defeated the Braves Stojan Stojanovski, 6-1, 6-0.
Big Red closed out the day with victories from Powell (No. 4 singles) and freshman Carlos Paton Canal (No. 6 singles).
The Cardinals will have nearly two weeks before they step back on the court. LU will go in search of its third-straight win Tuesday, April 3, when it returns to the Thompson Family Tennis Center to host Prairie View A&M. The doubleheaders against the Panthers will begin at 11 a.m., with the second match to follow at 3 p.m.
-LU CARDINALS-
