LUBBOCK, Texas (April 15, 2023) - Lubbock Christian University men's tennis team split the final week of regular season play, as they topped Arkansas Fort Smith 6-1 before falling to No.17 Cameron 6-1 in Lone Star Conference duals play. With the split, LCU heads to the Lone Star Conference Championships in Arlington, Texas as the No.4-seed (of eight) and they will open play Thursday at 8:30 a.m. against No.5-seed Arkansas Fort Smith.
vs. UAFS
LCU opened the weekend Friday with a convincing victory over Arkansas Fort Smith. Highlighting the day's play was the No.45 nationally ranked doubles team of
Kelly Giese /
Braden Tipton, who claimed a No.1 doubles victory over UAFS's No.25 nationally ranked doubles team of Anis. Ramchane / Killian Darneaux with a 6-2 set/match win. The Chaps swept doubles play for the doubles dual-point, as
Alex Donnelly / Mathijs Mallee (No.2 doubles) and
Martins Abamu /
Herman Aguirre (No.3 doubles) claimed victories.
The Chaps won five of the six singles matches. They had a 2-0 lead before dropping No.3 singles, but won out for the 6-1 win. Abamu, No.25 nationally ranked in singles, claimed a win in No.1 singles over No.38 Ramchane 6-4, 6-4. No.65 Giese (No.2 singles), Aguirre (No.4 singles), Gutierrez (No.5 singles) and Tipton (No.6 singles) each won their singles matches.
vs. CU
The Aggies swept doubles play to take the doubles point for a 1-0 lead in the dual. LCU's nationally ranked doubles team of Giese / Tipton played their third consecutive match against a nationally ranked doubles team, as they fell to No.16 Tomas Almeida / Thomas Cardona 6-4 in No.1 doubles.
In singles play, the Aggies won five of the six matches and had a 6-0 lead before Tipton helped LCU avoid the shutout by winning No.6 singles.
In Summary
LCU moved to 11-8 overall and 5-3 in LSC duals. Tipton had a solid week, improving his singles record to 6-2 in LSC duals (co-leads Giese in LSC wins on the team). He extended his win streak to four matches. He teamed up with Giese to have their doubles record go to 16-6 overall (16 wins leads the team… 6-2 in LSC). They move to 3-2 against nationally ranked doubles teams this season. LCU clinches their first LSC Championships berth in program history.
