PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Lee University women's tennis team was defeated 6-1 by West Florida Thursday afternoon at the Ralph "Skeeter" Carson Tennis Complex. The Lady Flames dropped to 3-6 overall and 1-2 in Gulf South Conference play. West Florida improved to 3-5, 2-1 GSC.

"The girls fought really hard today<" said="" lee="" head="" coach="" patric="" hynes.="" "we="" just="" wanted="" to="" focus="" on="" competing="" hard="" and="" that's="" what="" happened="" on="" every="">

Irene Recuenco and Raissa Wagner started doubles competition with a 6-0 win over Lee's Micaela Belen Maiz and Larissa Wieser at No. 3 doubles. Lisa Kirr and Ashleigh Simes took down Nathalia Mossambani and Giuliana Sacco 6-2 at No. 1 doubles to knot the double score at 1-1. Sara Yigin and Mayumi Saguchi secured the doubles point for UWF with a 6-3 advantage over Sierra Donaldson and Lauren Trammell.

Yigin gathered a 6-2, 6-0 win over Kirr to begin the singles competition. Saguchi pushed the Argos lead to 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Mirjana Ragastovac at No. 4 singles.

Simes ended the home team's shutout hopes. The 27^th-ranked singles player lost her opening set to Recuenco 6-3 before battling back to win the next two sets 6-1 and 6-4 to complete the comeback win at No. 1 singles.

"Ashleigh just dug really deep today. She's playing with the grit and maturity that you would expect from a senior. To do it as a freshman is impressive," praised Hynes. 

Wagner clinched the team victory with a 6-3, 6-4 score against Donaldson. Karolina Silwanowicz needed three sets to beat Trammell. Silwanowicz posted 6-3 and 6-2 scores in the first and third sets, respectively. Trammell posted a 7-5 advantage in the second set.

Mossambani and Belen Maiz battled through three sets after Mossambani won the opening set 6-3 and Belen Maiz forced a third set with a 6-4 margin in the second set. Mossambani recorded a 7-4 tiebreaker to claim the third set 7-6 and supply the final team score.

"Mica threw all of herself into that match today. To come in off no preparation and perform the way she did, showed great toughness," added Hynes.

The Lady Flames return to action on Tuesday, March 15 with a trip to Rome, Georgia to battle Shorter University in a GSC matchup. First serve is scheduled for 2 p.m. EDT.

"We've got a few days to reset now, we will take some time off to refresh ourselves for the rest of our season," concluded Hynes.