BEAUMONT - After going 7-1 over the course of an eight-match homestand, Abilene Christian men's tennis will hit the road for a pair of matches this weekend. It will meet Lamar in Beaumont at 1 p.m. Friday before taking on No. 65 Rice in Houston at 3 p.m. Saturday.
The 8-5 Wildcats are seeking their second win over the Cardinals in two weeks while looking for their first-ever victory versus the Owls. ACU beat Lamar, 6-1, on Feb. 22 in Abilene for its seventh win in a row before dropping its first Western Athletic Conference matchup to UT Arlington. The Wildcats rebounded with a 6-1 triumph over Texas A&M-Texarkana on March 1.
ACU is 0-8 against Rice since elevating to Division I status in 2013-14. Seven of those matchups came in Houston, with the programs last meeting on Feb. 13, 2022 for a 6-1 Owl victory.
Tomas Tischner had his seven-match win streak in singles snapped against the Mavericks on Feb. 27, but he bounced back to claim a 6-1, 6-3 victory over the Eagles two days later. He's won eight of his last nine and is joined by
Alejandro Verdasco and
Martin Delnido, who have both won their last seven matches.
Verdasco and
Ethan Scribner have displayed strong chemistry as a doubles pairing, winning six matches in a row and seven of their last eight.
Lamar is 9-6 after winning its last two contests with Oral Roberts and St. Mary's (TX). Leon Nickel is the Cardinals' mainstay on Court 1 with a 4-6 record, while Lukas Hamacher carries a 9-4 mark and a three-match winning streak. Stefano Chappuis has the hot hand, winning his last four matches to improve to 5-3. Nickel earned Lamar's sole point in singles when it met ACU.
The Cardinals are split 21-21 in doubles matches this season, with Nickel and Fabian Anthin logging a 5-5 mark at No. 1.
Rice fell to 7-4 with a 4-1 loss to Pepperdine on Feb. 27 that brought an end to its four-match winning streak. That run included wins over power conference competition in LSU and Texas Tech and a 6-1 defeat of Lamar.
Saturday's match at the George R. Brown Tennis Center will be the third in as many days for the Owls, who play A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday before playing UT Arlington at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Emir Sendogan is in the midst of a three-match winning streak, while Tommy Czaplinski and Petro Kuzmenok had won their last three singles matches before falling to the Waves.
Kabeer Kapasi and Arthus de la Bassetiere make up Rice's No. 1 doubles duo, but have lost three in a row together. Santiago Navarro and Kuzmenok are 3-1 thanks to three consecutive victories. Kuzmenok and de la Bassetiere teamed up to go 1-1 at the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship last week.
