BEAUMONT, Texas – A team that got out to a slow start in Southland Conference play this season, the Lamar University Cardinals had a closed-door team meeting, hit the reset button and close the regular season on fire. Entering the 2024 Southland Conference Championships, the Cardinals (10-11/2-2 SLC) closed the year winning three straight and four of their final five to pull into a two-way tie with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
Lamar's lone loss during that stretch was a one-point setback to eventual champion UIW. The Cardinals late season rally was enough to pull them into a second-place tie in the standings but LU will be the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament.
 
Big Red's opening-round opponent will be fifth-seeded No. 5 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (15-7/2-2 SLC). Lamar took the lone meeting between the two schools earlier this year when they traveled to Corpus Christi and recorded a 4-3 victory in front of the Islander faithful. It was the first LU win at A&M-Corpus Christi in program history.  
 
The match against the Islanders is set for a 2 p.m. start from the McFarlin Tennis Center in San Antonio. Should the Cards get past A&M-Corpus Christi, they will face top-seeded UIW. The league's other Cardinals were 18-4 (.818) on the year and 4-0 in conference play, but Lamar gave them their toughest battle of the season.