ARLINGTON, Texas (April 20, 2023) – Lubbock Christian University's men's tennis program was eliminated from the Lone Star Conference Championships, as the No.4-seed Chaparrals were upset 4-3 by No.5-seed Arkansas Fort Smith, but LCU bounced back by claiming a 4-1 win in a neutral site regular season non-conference contest against Western New Mexico Thursday at Arlington Tennis Center.
vs. UAFS
Playing less than a week following a 6-1 LCU win in Lubbock over UAFS, the match jumped out to a similar start, as LCU claimed the doubles point for a 1-0 dual lead. LCU's No.26 nationally ranked doubles team of
Kelly Giese and
Braden Tipton claimed a second victory of the season over UAFS's nationally ranked (No.25) doubles program of Anis Ramchane and Killian Darneaux. LCU's
Martins Abamu and
Herman Aguirre won the No.3 doubles point to take the double point in the dual.
LCU made it 2-0 with No.25 (singles)
Martins Abamu defeating No.36 Ramchane in No.1-singles play. Things went downhill from there, as UAFS won four of the five remaining matches. Tipton, winning No.6 singles, joined Abamu as the only Chap singles winners.
Abamu improved to 4-2 against nationally ranked opponents in singles. In doubles, Giese/Tipton claimed a fourth win of the season against a nationally ranked program (4-2). The dual loss put LCU 0-1 all-time in LSC Championship play.
vs. WNMU
LCU and WNMU played to "clinch," and getting a lead start was LCU, which took the doubles point for a 1-0 dual lead. The Lady Chaps swept doubles play, as Giese / Tipton (No.1-doubles),
Alex Donnelly / Mathijs Mallee (No.2-doubles) and Abamu / Aguirre (No.3-doubles) each claimed a win.
WNMU received their lone point by winning the first singles match by retirement. No.64 nationally ranked (in singles) Giese (No.2-singles), Tipton (No.6-singles) and
Sabri Laphitz (No.4 singles) and won their singles matches, as their Laphitz win clinched the dual match for a 4-1 final.
LCU moved their dual record to 12-9 on the season with Thursday's split. They will now await the NCAA Division II South Central Region selections, and the selection announcements will be made on Monday, April 24 at 7 p.m. (CT) for men's tennis.
