BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar University men's tennis team dropped a one-point thriller at home Saturday to UTSA to close out the 2022 regular season. Despite Saturday's loss, the Cardinals (16-7) roll into the postseason as the WAC's No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming conference championships hosted at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Complex next week.
 
The Cardinals jumped out to the early lead winning the doubles point with victories at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles. Unfortunately, Big Red had no time to enjoy their advantage as UTSA flipped the script taking the first three singles courts to build a 3-1 advantage.
 
With their backs against the wall, the Cardinals mounted a comeback. Freshman Max Amling recorded a straight-sets decision at No. 3 singles over the Roadrunners' Sebastian Rodriguez with both sets ending in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-1). With Amling's victory in the books, the Cardinals needed to win the final two singles courts to take the overall match and both of those courts were headed to a third set.
 
Freshman Daniel Sancho Arbizu dropped a tough second-set tiebreaker to be pushed to a third, while sophomore Brandon Do won an opening-set tiebreaker. In the end, the two schools split the two courts – with line one singles finishing first – to lock up the win for the visitors.
 
The Cardinals return to action Saturday, April 23, in the semifinals of the WAC Men's Tennis Championships. The top-seeded Cardinals will take on the winner of the No. 5 UT Rio Grande Valley and No. 4 Grand Canyon at 9 a.m. Saturday.