April 12, 2012

Final Stats

ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington won its third Southland Conference victory of the season after defeating the Lamar Cardinals 6-1 Thursday at the UTA Tennis Center.

"I am very proud of the overall performance by the guys," UT Arlington head coach Diego Benitez said. "We played solid doubles and came out ready for singles.

"This was a huge conference match; we never looked back and took home three straight matches. Now we feel good where we are standing and all our focus turns to the Tournament."

The Mavericks (9-11, 3-2 SLC) started the match strong after doubles play. No. 1 Mindaugas Celedinas and Soren Goritzka and No. 2 David Subirats and Yauheni Yakauleu both defeated their Lamar foes, and UTA went into singles play up 1-0.

Celedinas, a senior, stepped up for the Mavericks all season, as he went 5-0 against conference singles opponents, including a tough win against Lamar's No. 1 Rob Lee (7-6, 6-3).

"It was a hard match and (Lee) didn't want to lose so he was relaxed and made some good shots," Celedinas said. "It was about cutting my unforced errors and, of course, I got huge support from the team and coaches, which pushed me until the end."

The Lithuania native had mixed emotions about his last regular season conference match.

"It's sad, but at the same time, I'm happy to be able to finish conference with a nice victory today," Celedinas said. "It's just an amazing feeling and I'm glad I was able to experience it, especially fighting for UTA."

The senior is a true leader for the Mavericks and Benitez is inspired by his No. 1 player.

"I'm especially proud of Mindaugas for finishing undefeated in conference." Benitez said. "He has had a great year and is dominating big time. He had this goal from the beginning of the year and he got it. Nobody touched him!"

UT Arlington 6, Lamar 1

Doubles competition

1. Mindaugas Celedinas/Soren Goritzka (UTA) def. Horvath, Marton/Lee, Rob (LU) 8-4

2. David Subirats/Yauheni Yakauleu (UTA) def. Ermilov, Denis/Valdenebro, Carlos (LU) 8-6

3. Rajamaki, Mikko/Snyder, Bruno (LU) def. Nicolas Moreno/Jason Lateko (UTA) 9-7

Singles competition

1. Mindaugas Celedinas (UTA) def. Lee, Rob (LU) 7-6, 6-3

2. Soren Goritzka (UTA) def. Ermilov, Denis (LU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2

3. Yauheni Yakauleu (UTA) def. Horvath, Marton (LU) 2-6, 7-5, 6-2

4. Valdenebro, Carlos (LU) def. Nicolas Moreno (UTA) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1

5. David Subirats (UTA) def. Snyder, Bruno (LU) 6-3, 7-6

6. Jason Lateko (UTA) def. Rajamaki, Mikko (LU) 6-1, 6-3