CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The No. 9 Lee University men's tennis team was defeated by No. 22 West Alabama 5-2 in a Gulf South Conference (GSC) matchup Saturday afternoon at the DeVos Tennis Center. The Flames have now lost two straight and stand at 9-2 and 2-1 in the GSC. The Tigers improve to 10-4, 5-2 GSC.

UWA's fifth-ranked doubles team of Marcel Hornung and Lucas Hammond opened doubles competition with a 6-3 win over Nico Ramirez and Jordi Dasi. Mike and Quinn Groenendijk held off No. 35 Ilia Dehodiuk and Ilari Venanen 6-4 to tie the doubles at 1-1 and leaving the No. 3 doubles match to decide who gets the point. Wilson Igbinovia and Nuutti Jokinen gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead with a 6-4 win over Wihan Van Der Merwe and Drew Johnston.

Jokinen started singles competition with a 7-5, 6-2 score against Dasi. No. 23 Ramirez cut the Lee deficit in half with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of No. 72 Vesanen at No. 1 singles.

Igbinovia pushed UWA back up two with a three-set win against Van Der Merwe. Van Der Merwe won their opening set 6-4. Igbinovia claimed the second set with a 9-7 tiebreaker and rode the momentum to a 6-3 score in the third set. Hammond beat Johnston 6-4 and 6-2 at the fifth position to clinch the win for UWA.

Quinn Groenendijk posted a 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 4 singles against Loic Danze. Dehodiuk supplied the final team score with a three-set win over Mike Groenendijk at No. 6 singles. Groenendijk won the first set 6-3 and lost the second 6-4. Dehodiuk completed the comeback with a 10-6 super set tiebreaker.

The Flames return to action on Wednesday, March 22, at Young Harris College. The non-conference meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. EDT.