CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The No. 30 Lee University Men's Tennis team defeated No. 17 Mississippi College 5-2 Sunday afternoon at the DeVos Tennis Center. The contest was the final home match for the Flames this season.
The Flames (11-2, 6-2) swept the doubles competition to take a 1-0 lead. Francisco Faria and Filipe Krohn beat Alex Benichou Blanchard and Rafael Sabio 6-2. Mike and Quinn Groenendijk edged Felipe Iser and Sergio Ramirez Ocana 6-4 to secure the doubles point. Jordi Dasi and Wihan van der Merwe needed a 7-5 tiebreaker to win the No. 3 doubles match against Alvaro Saint Martin and Joe Jarvis 7-6.
Dasi opened singles competition with a three-set win at No. 3 singles against Saint Martin. Dasi posted a 6-4 win in the first set before falling 6-1 in the second set. He outlasted Saint Martin 7-5 in the third to win the match.
Lee went up 3-0 following van der Merwe's win against Sabio. The competitors swapped 6-4 marks in the first two sets before van der Merwe, ranked No. 66, secured the win at No. 2 singles with a 7-5 third-set score.
Faria lost his opening set to No. 3 Benichou Blanchard before fighting back to win in three sets and clinching the team victory. Faria won the second set 6-4 and used an 8-6 tiebreaker to win the third set 7-6.
The Choctaws (10-8, 5-3 GSC) avoided the shutout with wins by Jarvis at No. 4 singles and Antoine Nivault at No. 6 singles. Quinn Groenendijk won the opening set 6-4 and Jarvis claimed the second 6-3. Jarvis grabbed the win with a 10-4 margin in the superset tiebreaker. Nivault and Yike Liu split the first two sets and Nivault won the superset tiebreaker 10-7.
Krohn beat Ramirez Ocana 6-2 in the first set and completed the two-set win with a 7-5 tiebreaker in the second.
The Flames are scheduled to complete the regular season next Sunday at Valdosta State University. The GSC match is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
Coach Patric Hynes' Thoughts:
"That was a really complete team win today. Our guys played very well. Mississippi College are a really strong team, legitimate top 20. We brought great intensity to our doubles and the singles matches were absolute battles. Both teams just battled really hard all day."
"This was the last home match for Mike, Kiko and Jordi, what a great way to go out. Mike played super doubles with his brother and Jordi came up huge under pressure. Wihan stayed really strong under adversity today. He was able to fight back from a breakdown in the third set by just staying tough and delivering under pressure. Great win for him."
"That's one of the best performances I've seen from Kiko and he's had a lot of them. To fight off several match points and win against the No. 3 player in the country is something that he really deserves. Nobody puts more into being a great player than him. Very proud of that win."
