PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Lee University men's tennis team opened the 2022 season with a 6-1 loss at No. 6 West Florida Saturday morning at the Ralph "Skeeter" Carson Tennis Center.

West Florida (1-0, 1-0 GSC) outlasted the Flames in doubles competition to take a 1-0 lead into singles. Lluis Miralles Miro and Bernardo Costa doubled up Jordi Dasi and Diego Garcia to win 6-3 at No. 2 doubles. Tomas Descarrega and Facundo Bermejo edged Bruno Medeiros and Nico Ramirez 6-4 at No. 1 singles to clinch the doubles point. Drew Johnston and Wihan Van Der Merwe pushed Salvador Bandeira and Albin Ekenros before falling 7-5.

"We started well in doubles and played at a decent enough level, but we needed to capitalize on some opportunities," said Lee head coach Patric Hynes.

Sebastian Sotelo pushed the UWF lead to 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Van Der Merwe at No. 6 singles. Albin Ekenros beat Johnston 6-2 and 6-1 at the fifth position. Bernardo Costa secured the team win with a straight set win over Medeiros.

Juan Cabrera, ranked No. 42, posted 6-1 and 6-3 margins to defeat Dasi and extend the UWF lead to 5-0. The Argonauts' push for a team shutout came to an end at the hands of Ramirez at No. 1 singles. Ramirez dropped his opening set to Bermejo 6-2 and forced a third set with a 6-3 second-set win. Ramirez completed his comeback victory with an 8-0 score in the third-set tiebreaker. Descarrega supplied the final team margin with a 6-2, 7-6 (3)  No. 3 singles win over Garcia.

"They jumped us in singles a little bit, we fought really hard at No. 1 and No. 3," added Hynes. "Nico pulled out a good win. He just stayed with it and refused to go down."

The Flames remain on the road to face Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.

We've got another opportunity tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing what our response is," Hynes concluded.