CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Lamar University's youthful women's tennis team opened play in the Southland Conference Championships Thursday afternoon against top-seeded Abilene Christian. Unfortunately for the Red and White, the No. 8-seed Cardinals came up just short dropping a 4-0 decision.
 
The loss ends the Cardinals' season with an 8-14 (.364) overall record, after posting a 5-6 (.455) mark in Southland Conference matches.
 
"I'm very proud of this team because we had a lot to overcome to get to this point," said LU head coach David Wong. "I thought we fought really hard, but we put ourselves in a tough spot after dropping the doubles point. These ladies never quit but give credit to Abilene Christian they have a very talented team and played well."
 
The doubles competition turned out to be a hard-fought match within the match going right down to the wire. After the Wildcats picked up the first victory of the day on court No. 1, LU battled back to even things up at line 3. The duo of junior Sanja Jolic and Laura Sola Grau defeated the Wildcats' Ilena Mocciola and Autumn Bellow, 6-3.
 
The victory on court No. 2 placed the point's outcome, and the first lead of the match, on court No. 2. After the first 10 games were completed the match was locked in 5-5 tie. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, ACU's team of Allison Stewart and Jordan Henry grabbed a slim lead late and held on for the point.
 
Abilene Christian pushed its advantage to 2-0 following a victory on court No. 1. Sola Grau was trying to answer back for the Cardinals on court No. 6 after picking up an opening-set victory, 6-3, over Mocciola, but the Wildcats' No. 6 battled back to force a third set.
 
The match at line 6 going to a third set hurt any possible momentum for the Cardinals as that allowed ACU enough time to put another victory on the board before court 6 could go final. The Wildcats got their third point from court No. 5 followed shortly thereafter by court 2 to close out the match.