TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – For the first time in program history the Lee University men's tennis team advanced to the GSC Championship Final with a 4-2 win over West Alabama Friday afternoon at the Tuscaloosa Tennis Center. The 12^th-ranked and No. 2 seed Flames improved to 14-1 overall, while the 16^th-ranked and third-seeded Tigers fell to 15-7.

Rytis Razminas and Francisco Guimarães opened doubles competition with a 6-0 defeat of Maksim Goncharov and Afonso Portugal at the third position. Sebastiao Vilas and Gabriel Garay evened the doubles score after beating Quinn Groenendijk and Jip Langerhuizen 6-4. The No. 2 doubles match needed a tiebreaker to determine the doubles point. The 18^th-ranked doubles team of Federico Iturbe and Jacob Tapia outscored Stefan Mos and Filipe Krohn 7-5 in the tiebreaker to secure the match 7-6 and put UWA ahead 1-0 heading into singles competition.

Krohn, ranked No. 16, was up one set and led 3-0 in the second set when Garay, ranked No. 30, retired to give Krohn the win. Razminas posted matching 6-3 set scores against Vilas at the sixth spot to give Lee a 2-1 advantage.

Mos swapped 6-1 set scores with Iturbe before collecting the three-set win at No. 4 singles with a 6-4 margin in the third set.

Goncharov kept UWA alive with a three set win over Guimarães at No. 5 singles. Guimarães won the first set 6-4 before Goncharov battled back to win the next two sets 6-2 and 6-4 to pull the Tigers back to within one point at 3-2.

Langerhuizen battled through two set tiebreakers to take down Portugal at No. 3 singles. He posted 7-4 tiebreaker scores in each set to win the match 7-6, 7-6 and clinch the Flames' first win in the GSC Semifinal round.

The No. 2 singles match was left unfinished with 33^rd-ranked Groenendijk and Tapia, ranked No. 60, tied at one set each. Tapia claimed the first set 7-5 and Groenendijk responded with a 6-2 win in the second set. The third set had not started when the contest was halted.

The Flames will take on West Florida in the GSC Championship final on Saturday at 11 a.m. EDT. The top-seeded Argonauts enter the final day ranked No. 1 with an overall record of 23-1.