April 16, 2008

Results

BEAUMONT - The Lamar University women's tennis team wrapped up the regular season with a 4-0 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday afternoon at the Cardinal Courts.

The Lady Cards improve to 21-2 on the year and 10-1 in Southland Conference play with the win, while Texas A&M-Corpus Christi falls to 4-11 overall and 2-9 in conference play with the loss. Twenty-one wins ties for the second-most victories by a Lamar women's tennis team. At 21-2 the Lady Cards winning percentage of 91.3 percent is the best in school history.

With the decision made prior to the match not to play doubles and the winner to be determined as soon as one team won four singles points, the Lady Cardinals wasted little time in dismissing the Islanders.

Lamar started with an early 1-0 advantage as Corpus Christi defaulted the point at No. 6 singles by not playing. Salina Aranda boosted the LU lead to 2-0 with a quick 6-0, 6-1 win over Jessica Gonzalez at No. 5 and Kaltrina Harbuzi made it 3-0 with her 6-2, 6-0 win over Megan Harless. The Lady Cardinals sealed the match with the fourth point when Mariaryeni Gutierrez finished off Alexandra Dyckman 6-0, 6-0. The win also boosted Gutierrez's season record to 23-0 and 11-0 in Southland Conference play.

The Lady Cards were poised to pick up another point at No. 1 singles as Andrea Martinez led Nina Ciric 5-0 in the second set after taking the opener 6-2. Maria Gutierrez was also on the comeback trial in her match at No. 4 singles, leading 3-1 in the second set after dropping the opening set to Alexandra Valarezo 6-3.

The Lady Cardinals will be back in action next week when they play in the Southland Conference tournament in Nacogdoches, Texas. The tournament begins on Friday, April 25 though Sunday, April 27.