CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The No. 8 Lee University men's tennis team lost for the first time this season with a 4-0 setback to No. 7 University of Texas at Tyler Thursday afternoon at the DeVos Tennis Center. The Flames (9-1) remain at home to take on No. 22 West Alabama on Saturday.

"Credit to UT Tyler, they came out ready for doubles and we couldn't find a way in there," said Lee University head coach Patric Hynes. "We needed to play a little better today to get a result."

The Patriots 11-1 secured the doubles point with wins in each of the completed doubles matches. Gonzalo Fernandez and Egor Shestakov defeated Francisco Faria and Nico Ramirez 6-1 to open doubles competition. Jonas Dixon and Jordi Garcia Portell secured the doubles win for UT Tyler with a 6-3 margin against Wihan Van Der Merwe and Drew Johnston. The No. 2 doubles match was left unfinished with the score tied 4-4.

Joaquin Bianchi, ranked No. 15 in singles, beat No. 23 Ramirez 6-3 and 6-3 to win at No. 1 singles. Shestakov was pushed the distance at No. 3 singles against Jordi Dasi. Shestakov won their opening set 6-2 and Dasi forced a third set by winning the second set 6-4. Shestakov claimed the match with a 7-5 mark in the third set.

Fernandez, ranked No. 4, outlasted Faria to win the No. 2 singles match and clinch the team victory for the visitors. Fernandez won the opening set 6-3 and Faria returned the favor with a 6-3 margin of his own in the second set. Fernandez won the final set 7-6 following a 7-4 tiebreaker.

The No. 4 singles match was left unfinished with Van Der Merwe leading 2-0 in the third set. He had won the first set 7-5 and lost the second to Carel Wessel 6-1. Quinn Groenendijk led Garcia Portell 3-0 in the first set when the team match had been decided and was left unfinished. The No. 6 singles competition between Lee's Drew Johnston and UTT's Yudai Watanabe did not start.