BEAUMONT, Texas – In a battle of the Southland Conference's two Cardinals, Lamar University was playing with a shot at climbing a rung of the ladder Wednesday afternoon when it faced UIW. Unfortunately, LU was unable to overcome an early deficit falling, 5-2, at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Complex.
 
Lamar (10-9/2-3 SLC) had an opportunity early to take the first lead of the day. With each team recording a doubles victory (between courts 1 and 2), the deciding match came down to the third court. Freshman Saloni Tamang and Emma Shasteen were locked in a close back and forth battle against UIW's Gargi Pawar and Lyric Bonilla but in the end the duo from San Antonio won the match and the point.
 
The Southland's other Cardinals pushed that lead to 2-0 before LU got on the scoreboard. That victory came in the form of Shasteen who defeated Sophia Kermet, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 5 singles. Unfortunately, LU was unable to string wins together as San Antonio's version of the Cardinals took the match on court 2 building a 3-1 lead.
 
Before any other matches could be decided play was stopped for nearly an hour due to lightning in the area. When play resumed, LU cut into the deficit behind Megan Do's 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 victory over UIW's Nitika Girish at the No. 6 position.
 
That would be the final point for Big Red as UIW took the remaining two courts for the overall win.
 
The Cardinals will look to get back in the win column Friday when they take on league-leading Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The match against the Islanders will take place at 11 a.m. from the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center.