BEAUMONT, Texas – For the third time in as many years the Lamar University men's tennis team is headed to the NCAA Championships to represent the Southland Conference. The only change to the storyline in 2018 compared to the past is this year may have caught some fans by surprise. The previous two seasons, the Cardinals were expected to be here after winning the regular-season championship. In 2018, a youthful LU squad (four freshmen) had to win its regular-season finale just to qualify for the conference championships. The Cards reward for knocking off the Southland's top-two seeds in the league tournament, a date with No. 5 overall seed Texas A&M in College Station.
 
The Cardinals (10-13) roll into the 2018 championship tournament playing their best tennis of the season. Big Red has won three consecutive matches by a combined score of 15-5. Included in those wins are upsets of the Southland's top-two seeds – Incarnate Word and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Prior to the Cards' upset of UIW, San Antonio's version of the Cardinals were undefeated against Southland schools.
 
Texas A&M enters the NCAA Championships as one of the favorites to win the NCAA Division I title. The Aggies (22-5) had won 10-straight before being defeated in the Southeastern Conference finals by No. 9 Mississippi State, 4-3. Among the Aggies' five losses this season, four of them came to teams ranked 11^th, or higher, in the ITA Top-25 poll. The only loss to an unranked squad came against Oklahoma early in the season.
 
Should the Cardinals get past Texas A&M, they would face the winner of the Arizona State and Baylor match. The Bears (20-9) enter the tournament as an at-large selection after posting a fifth-place finish in the Big 12. Baylor advanced to the conference tournament finals before bowing out to Texas. The Sun Devils (14-10) finished fifth in the Pacific 12 Conference during the 2018 campaign. Arizona State was eliminated from their conference tournament by rival Arizona in the opening round.
 
The NCAA trip to College Station will be the Cards' second in the past three seasons. Two years ago, the Cardinals traveled to College Station to face Texas in the opening round of the tournament. That year the Cardinals were the third-seeded team in the pod. Current LU assistant coach, Nikita Lis, was a junior on that squad.
 
The opening-round match against the Aggies will take place Friday, May 11^th, at 1 p.m. The match between Baylor and Arizona State will begin at 10 a.m. Both first and second-round matches of the College Station pod will take place at the George Mitchell Tennis Center.
 
Fans will have the ability to watch the match by clicking here. The NCAA will also be providing live scoring updates which can been seen by clicking here. Fans wishing to purchase tickets can do so by clicking here.
 
-LU CARDINALS-