Sophomore Axel Vila Antuna did it all this season for the Lamar University men’s tennis team.
Every match, he took on the opponent’s top singles player, not to mention being a part of Lamar’s No. 1 doubles pairing.
With Lamar preparing to host the Southland Conference tournament as the second seed this weekend, Vila Antuna received some high praise from the league on Thursday. The Valencia, Spain, native was named as the Southland’s Player of the Year, highlighting five all-conference honors for the Cardinals.
Vila Antuna is just the fourth Lamar tennis player to be selected as the conference’s top player. Michael Feucht in 2016 was the last to do it.
“Axel really played great tennis during the conference season,” Lamar head coach Scott Shankles said. “He was focused and driven. It’s not easy being at No. 1 singles knowing you’re going to be facing the other team’s top player every match. Then to go out and go undefeated at No. 1 doubles with (partner Nicolas) Mayr was pretty special.”
Vila Antuna was the Southland’s lone undefeated player in conference matches, posting a 5-0 mark. He led Lamar with 10 overall singles wins.
His doubles partner, senior Nicolas Mayr, was also a first-team All-Southland Conference selection. The duo went undefeated together during league doubles play.
Junior Carlos Paton Canal (No. 4 singles), Nederland graduate Brandon Do (No. 5 singles) and junior Joshua Sundaram (No. 6 singles) each garnered second-team honors.
“I’m very happy for all of these guys,” Shankles said. “Each one worked extremely hard to overcome COVID, a lack of fall competitions, cancellations, etc. They’ve come to practice every day and worked hard. I’m just excited for each one of them.”
Lamar received the second seed in the upcoming conference tournament after falling to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the last match of the regular season. The Cardinals had won three straight contests entering that matchup with the Islanders and could have earned the conference title with a victory.
Lamar will face No. 3 seed New Orleans at 10 a.m. Saturday inside the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center. With only four teams taking part in the men’s tournament because of coronavirus protocols and opt-outs, the winner of that game will advance to the championship match on Sunday morning.
The Cardinals’ women’s team earned a No. 7 seed in the tournament and will play New Orleans on Friday at 10 a.m.
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