CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Lee University women's tennis team remained unbeaten with a 4-3 upset of No. 22 West Florida Saturday afternoon at the DeVos Tennis Center. The Lady Flames are now 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the Gulf South Conference (GSC).
"That was a fantastic win for our ladies today," said Lee head coach Patric Hynes. "These girls are a lot of fun to be around and they put it all out there today."
West Florida (1-2, 1-1 GSC) gained an early advantage following a 6-1 win by Aline Midori Silva and Carlota Verdu against Ashleigh Simes and Matina Ujdur. Micaela Maiz and Maria Duarte evened the doubles competition with a 6-0 shutout of Mayumi Saguchi and Jenna Svatos. Mirjana Ragastovac and Elizaveta Snilozubova doubled-up Luiza Daud and Meghan Kumria 6-3 to secure the doubles point for the Lady Flames.
"Mica and Nanda (Maria) gave us a great start and Lizza and Mima came through in a tough situation there," said Hynes.
Midori Silva posted a 7-5, 6-3 win at No. 3 singles against Ragastovac to tie the score at 1-1. Simes, ranked No. 24, won the first and third sets of her No. 1 singles match against Saguchi to give the lead back to Lee. Simes won the opening set 6-2, lost the second 6-1 and completed the individual win with a 6-3 margin in the third set.
"Ash was under some pressure there, especially in the second set and early parts of the third, but she really finished playing high level tennis at the end there," added Hynes.
Maiz overcame a first set loss (6-1) to Verdu with a pair of 7-6 scores in the next two sets to extend the Lee advantage to 3-1. Maiz won the second set with a 7-3 tiebreaker and the third with a 7-0 score in the tiebreaker.
"It was probably the best win I've seen from Mica in her time here. She was behind all day and just refused to lie down," said Hynes.
Svatos and Guadalupe Martinez recorded wins at No. 5 and No. 4 singles, respectively, to leave the No. 6 singles match as the eventual match-winner. Svatos beat Gnilozubova 6-1, 6-2, while Martinez held off Ujdur 7-5 and 6-3.
Duarte and Raissa Wagner battled in the deciding match with each splitting the first two sets by matching 6-4 tallies. Duarte went up 3-0 early in the third set and carried the momentum to a 6-2 win that set off a celebration from the Lee faithful.
"So proud of Nanda (Maria). To go out there in the 3-3 match and beat a strong senior is something that's not easy to do. She just did a tremendous job holding her nerve," praised Hynes. "The atmosphere at the end of the match was awesome, our girls stayed loud and energetic throughout, and it was great that our guys stayed around to support."
The Lady Flames will step back out of conference action on Sunday to take on King University. The match is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the DeVos Tennis Center.
