April 28, 2006

ENNIS, Texas - UT Arlington waited for more than three hours as Mother Nature played havoc with the Southland Conference Tennis Championship. Once the weather cleared long enough to play, the Mavericks made quick work of Lamar, eliminating the Cardinals in less than an hour to advance to Saturday's semifinals.

The tournament was held at both the UTA Tennis Center and at the indoor courts of the Lions Tennis Center in Ennis.

UTA was scheduled to play at 4:30 p.m., but found themselves on hold for the afternoon. The match was moved to Ennis for a 2 p.m. start but the matches bogged down and the men's opening round match did not begin until 7 p.m.

UTA, who defeated Lamar 7-0 during the regular season, won four singles matches to advance to face second-seed Southeastern Louisiana at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

"I was happy with the way we handle our business Friday," said UTA coach Diego Benitrez. "We could have let the delays become a distraction, but once we got on the court we went to work and did a good job of taking care of business."

At the No. 6 position, Ian Vasquez defeated Tyler Cobbs, 6-1, 6-0; Alberto Agis made quick work of Wesley Arnold at the No. 4 spot, 6-1, 6-2. Daniel Omana defeated Evan Hays 6-3, 6-2 at No.3 while Sandy Farquharson knocked off Filip Kanczula 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 1 spot.

Earlier in the day, Texas-San Antonio defeated Nicholls State 4-0 to advance to the other men's semifinals against top-seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

In women's play, Sam Houston State knocked off Texas-San Antonio, 4-3 and Lamar defeated Louisiana-Monroe 4-3 in a four-and-a-half hour marathon.

The UTA women will face Lamar in one semifinal at 2 p.m. at the UTA Tennis Center.