CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The No. 37 Lee University women's tennis team bounced back from its first loss of the season with a 4-2 win over University of Texas at Tyler Thursday afternoon at the DeVos Tennis Center. The Lady Flames (7-1) remain at home to take on No. 10 West Alabama on Saturday.
"I'm proud of our ladies," said Lee University head coach Patric Hynes. "They've had some adversity to deal with these last couple of weeks. Really good win for our ladies today."
The Patriots (8-5) grabbed an early advantage in doubles with a 6-1 win by Tanvikhaa Saravanan and Kanika Sivaraman against Hayden Smith and Elizaveta Gnilozubova at No. 3 doubles. Micaela Maiz and Maria Duarte doubled-up Brooklyn Ross and Violetta Khisamova 6-3 at the second position to leave the No. 1 doubles match to decide the team point. Ashleigh Simes and Matina Ujdur held off Allison Schwartz and Akshavya Suresh 7-3 in a tiebreaker to win 7-6.
"Matina was brilliant in the deciding tiebreaker of doubles today, exactly what you want from a senior," praised Hynes.
Simes pushed the Lee lead to 2-0 after her opponent at No. 1 singles retired due to injury. UT Tyler pulled back within one point with Khisamova's win over Ujdur at No. 3 singles. Khisamova outlasted Ujdur in the first set with a 7-2 tiebreaker win and completed the win with a 6-2 score in the second set.
Maiz and Saravanan split their first two sets at the No. 2 position by matching 6-4 margins. Maiz claimed the win with a 6-3 third set.
"Mica is such a fighter on court, she had to work really hard for that win today," added Hynes.
Schwartz won the first and third sets with Gnilozubova 6-4 to win the No. 4 singles match. Gnilozubova forced the third set with a 7-5 win in the second set.
Duarte beat Suresh Akshavya 6-4, 7-5 to win No. 5 singles and clinch the team victory. The No. 6 singles match was left unfinished with UTT's Sivaraman leading Smith 6-5 in the first set.
"Nanda (Duarte) keeps getting better with every match. One thing you know about her is that she is going to give 100% for her team in every match," Hynes concluded.
