The Lee University men's tennis team stepped out of conference play to defeat Tennessee Wesleyan University 5-2 Wednesday afternoon at the DeVos Tennis Center.
The Bulldogs, ranked No. 10 in the NAIA, took an early lead by winning two of the three doubles matches. Ryan Lee and Caius Blomqvist defeated Jake Okines and Bruno Medeiros at the No. 1 position. Francisco Lanusse and Gregorio Magnarelli posted the same score against Jesus Garcia and Cristian Pons. The No. 3 doubles match was left unfinished.
Garcia evened the team score at 1-1 with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Jorge Sedeno. Daniel Prata gave Lee its first lead in a three-set thriller. Prata won the opening set 6-3, but Lanusse forced a third set with a 6-2 second set score. Prata responded with a 6-4 tally to win the third set and the match.
Okines also needed three sets to post his singles victory over Caio Bardauil. Okines won the first set 6-1 and the third 7-5. Bardauil grabbed the second set by a 6-2 margin. Antonio Pons clinched the team victory with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Ariel Spagnuolo at No. 4 singles.
Magnarelli ended Lee's win streak with a three-set win over Cristian Pons at No. 5 singles. Pons won the opening set 6-1 before Magnarelli came back to win the second set 6-3 and a super set tie-breaker 10-4.
Medeiros swapped 6-4 scores with Bernat Paredes at the sixth position to force a third set. Medeiros completed the comeback with a 10-6 score in the super set tie-breaker.
The Flames return to the courts on Thursday against Shorter University. The Gulf South Conference matchup is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. EDT.
