BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University raced out to a big lead and never looked back defeating former conference opponent Nicholls, 6-1, Saturday afternoon at the Thompson Family Tennis Center.
 
The Cardinals (8-3) took the first six points of the match to lock up the victory early and post their seventh consecutive victory. Big Red took all three doubles matches in less than 40 minutes as the team of Max Amling and Filippo Salsini got the day started with a quick 6-1 victory over Ricardo Machado and Pavle Drobnjackovic at the No. 2 position. LU's top duo of Daniel Sancho Arbizu and Juan Jose Rodriguez clinched the point moments later with a 6-4 decision, followed by a win on court three just seconds later.
 
The Cardinals then turned their focus to singles where Garcia-Ripoll handed the Red and White a 2-0 lead on court 5 with a 6-1, 6-1, decision over Nicholls' Drobnjakovic. Salsini put the Cardinals on the doorstep of the overall team win as he dispensed his opponent, Nicola Wehrle, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 4 singles.
 
With Salsini's victory in the books LU needed just one more win to record the overall team win and had four remaining matches they could turn to. The Cardinals only had to wait two minutes to get the final victory. The deciding match came from Rodriguez on court No. 2. He defeated Nicholls' Ricardo Machado, 6-1, 7-5.
 
LU closed out the match with a victory on courts 1 and 6 before Nicholls was able to get on the board in the final match of the day.
 
The Cardinals return to action Thursday when they host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The match against the Islanders will begin at 1 p.m. from the Thompson Family Tennis Center.