BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University kicked off the home portion of its schedule in strong fashion sweeping a doubleheader against Alcorn State Saturday at the Thompson Family Tennis Center. LU defeated the Braves 7-0 in the first match and 6-0 in the second.
 
Big Red opened the day in strong fashion blazing out to a 1-0 lead in doubles play. Alcorn State came into the match down a player due to injuries meaning the Cardinals only needed to win one of the two doubles matches for the point but Lamar took both matches just for good measure.
 
The first victory came from the duo of Brandon Do and Leon Nickel. The senior-freshman combo ousted Alcorn State's Nikola Kijac and David Mantilla, 6-3. LU's Max Amling and Haruki Omori-Cowie followed suit moments later with a 6-2 decision over Yangho Park and Emmanuel Cottle, 6-3.
 
Automatically taking a 2-0 lead as the team's transitioned into singles, the Cardinals picked up a win from Nickel at No. 2 singles defeating Kijac, 6-2, 6-1. With Nickel's victory, Lamar needed just one more win to take the overall team decision. The Cardinals closed out the day winning all remaining courts with the deciding point coming from Martin Garcia-Ripoll on court No. 4 – he ousted the Braves' Park, 6-0, 6-1.  
 
Big Red followed the exact same gameplan in the match, dominating doubles followed by a strong start in singles play and never looked back. Both Nickel and Do were moved up in the lineup for the second match as Do picked up a thrilling three-set win over David Mantilla, 4-6, 6-3, 10-3, followed by Do's impressive tiebreak victory in the second set over Kijac to post a 6-0, 7-6 (9-7) decision to close out the sweep.
 
Lamar finished off the doubleheader without dropping a match.
 
The Cardinals return to action Wednesday when they host UT Tyler. The match against UTT will begin at 1 p.m. from the Thompson Family Tennis Center.