ORLANDO, Fla. – The Lee University men's tennis team finished a perfect Spring Break trip with a 5-2 win over University of Findlay Thursday afternoon at the Fort Gatlin Tennis Center. The Lady Flames improved to 7-2, while the Oilers dropped to 6-4.
"It was a really good performance today," said Lee head coach Patric Hynes. "Findlay are very good. Doubles was extremely close and Jesus (Garcia) and Cristian (Pons) stepped up under pressure at No. 2."
Daniel Prata and Antonio Pons opened doubles with a 6-1 win over Eduardo Munoz and Alfredo Berianga. Tomas Kmetko and Jorge Barnuevo evened doubles at 1-1 with a 6-4 margin over Jake Okines and Bruno Medeiros.
Garcia and Cristian Pons outlasted Carlos Blanco and Nicholas Kopylec at No. 2 doubles. The duo posted a 7-0 tie-breaker to win 7-6 and earn the doubles point for the Flames.
Antonio Pons posted scores of 6-2 and 6-2 against Berianga to open the singles competition. Garcia extended Lee's lead to 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Barnuevo. Prata was a 6-3, 6-4 winner against Blanco at No. 3 singles to clinch the team victory.
Kmetko needed three sets to end Lee's shutout hopes. After losing the first set 6-4 to Okines, Kmetko won the second set 6-2 and the tie-breaker superset 10-7 to claim the win at No. 1 singles. Findlay posted its second straight win with Sergio Palacio's 6-3, 6-2 win over Medeiros.
Cristian Pons held off Munoz to win their opening set 7-5 and completed the straight-set win with a 6-3 margin in the second set.
"We are growing with every match and our guys are starting to see some reward for the way they go about it," added Hynes.
The Flames return to action on Saturday, March 16, against Bellarmine University for the first of four consecutive home matches. The non-conference meeting is scheduled for a 10 a.m. start.
