MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Lee University men's tennis team dropped its second consecutive Gulf South Conference match with a 4-3 loss at No. 30 Auburn Montgomery Saturday afternoon at the AUM Tennis Complex.
No. 41 Lee (15-5, 5-4 GSC) grabbed the earlier advantage after winning two of the three doubles matches. Bruno Medeiros and Jake Okines upset the No. 42-ranked doubles team of Jose Garcia and Alvaro Terron 6-1. Eban Straker-Meads and Santiago Veglia evened the tally with a 6-4 defeat of Jesus Garcia and Cristian Pons. Antonio Pons and Daniel Prata secured the team point with a 7-5 win over Francisco Jimenez and Marcus Lind at the third position.
Jimenez opened singles competition with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Antonio Pons to give AUM (10-6, 5-2 GSC) its first team point. Cristian Pons posted 6-4 scores in both sets to beat Garcia. Veglia outlasted Prata 7-6 in their opening set and evened the team score at 2-2 with a 6-3 score in the second set.
Okines and Garcia each won their opening sets against ranked opponents, but they were unable to complete the wins at the top two singles positions. Okines beat Terron, ranked No. 19, 6-1 in the opening set before dropping the next two sets 6-4 and 6-3. The 52
nd-ranked Straker-Meads responded to his 6-2 loss to Garcia with 7-6 and 6-2 scores in the second and third sets to clinch the team victory for AUM.
Medeiros supplied the final margin with a three-set win at No. 6 singles. Lind held off Medeiros 7-5 in the first set and the Lee sophomore forced a deciding set with a 6-3 margin in the second set. Medeiros completed the win with a 10-4 mark in the super set tie-breaker.
"Tough result today," said Lee head coach Patric Hynes. "It was a pretty intense match all the way through and we had our chances. Didn't capitalize on a good start, so this one stings a bit. No time to dwell on it though, we need to get ourselves ready and bounce back tomorrow at Montevallo."
The GSC match at Montevallo is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. EDT. The Falcons are ranked No. 44 with a record of 8-6 (3-3 GSC).
