BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar University men's tennis team will open up the 2025 campaign on the road with matches at Texas and Baylor. The season opener will be Saturday in Austin, Texas against the top-ranked Texas Longhorns (1 p.m.) followed by a noon match Sunday against the Bears in Waco.
 
The Cardinals are coming off a 2024 campaign that saw them finish 11-12 (.478) overall and in the middle of the conference standings with a 2-2 (.500) record. The record doesn't tell the whole story for last year's Cardinals. Big Red dropped six of its first eight matches to open the year but turned things on down the stretch. The Cardinals closed six of their final nine matches and advanced to the SLC semifinals. Two of the three losses during that stretch came to conference regular-season champion, UIW, with both decisions coming right down to the wire (and the regular-season contest being a one-point decision).
 
Big Red returns four letterwinners from last year's squad – seniors Haruki Omori-Cowie and Jonah Smith and sophomores Leon Nickel and Stefano Chappuis. Nickel returns from a stellar rookie campaign that saw him earn league freshman of the year honors.
 
LU head coach Scott Shankles, now in his 15^th season with the Red and White, added five newcomers to the roster – four freshmen and a junior. Guy Dagan is the lone junior in that group while the freshmen include Fabian Anthin, Louis Drapeau, Lukas Hamacher and Santiago Ledesma.

Saturday's match is still slated to take place at the Texas Tennis Center and will have video and live results. Should the match be forced indoors due to the weather live results will still be provided.
 
Following their two road matches, the Cardinals will kick off their home slate Saturday, Jan. 25^th with a doubleheader against Alcorn State. The first match is slated to begin at 10 a.m. with the second match starting at 2 p.m. Those two matches will take place at the Thompson Family Tennis Center.