BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar University men's tennis team will close out the 2019 fall schedule on Friday at the ITA Regional Championships in Waco, Texas. The regional championships will run through Monday and will take place at the Hurd Tennis Center and Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
 
The Waco region consists of 14 teams, including Abilene Christian, Baylor, Incarnate Word, LU, Rice, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Texas Tech, UT Arlington, UTSA and UT Rio Grande Valley. The updated draws for the tournament have not yet been released. 
 
For the Cardinals, the ITA Regional Championships will close out a four-tournament fall campaign that opened up with the Islander Open. The Cardinals then competed at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa and the annual fall home tournament – Ron Wesbrooks Invitational.
 
The Cardinals have performed well in the fall season thus far. In the Cardinal's last match, sophomore Axel Vila Antuna secured the individual title at Lamar University's Ron Westbrooks Invitational. Vila Antuna earned a well fought victory over UT Arlington's Alan Sau and triumphed 7-5, 7-6 (7-2). Carlos Paton Canal and Joshua Taylor also progressed to their respective bracket finals, though the two Cardinals fell just short, losing in straight sets. Taylor returned to action in the men's doubles final pairing with freshman Filippo Salsini, the Cardinal pair romped to a 6-0 victory against UTA.
 
Big Red will return to action in the spring, with their schedule set to start when they travel to Stillwater, Okla., with a match up against Bryant and Oklahoma State on Jan 17th.  The Cardinals will play their first home game when they host SMU on Jan. 25th. The match up against SMU will begin at 11 A.M from the Thompson Family Tennis Center.
 
The Cardinals will open Southland Conference play Saturday, Mar. 28, against UIW, and will play their first home conference game on Thursday, Apr. 2.