TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Lee University men's tennis team's quest for the program's first GSC Championship came to an end Saturday afternoon in a 4-1 loss to No. 1 West Florida in the final of the GSC Championship at the Tuscaloosa Tennis Center. The Flames, ranked No. 12 and seeded No. 2, fell to 14-2 overall, while the Argonauts improved to 24-1.

Rytis Razminas and Francisco Guimarães opened the doubles competition with a 6-3 win over Mark Neyelov and Samuel Vidales at the third position. Goncalo Quintela and Rafael Sabio used a 7-2 tiebreaker to defeat Lee's Stefan Mos and Filipe Krohn 7-6 at No. 2 doubles. The No. 1 ranked doubles team of Diego Duran and Sebastian Rondon also needed an 8-6 tiebreaker to beat Quinn Groenendijk and Jip Langerhuizen 7-6 to secure the doubles point for UWF.

Duran, ranked No. 3 in singles, pushed the UWF lead to 2-0 with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Groenendijk, ranked No. 33, at the second singles position.

Razminas ended UWF's shutout hopes with a defeat of Neyelov at No. 6 singles. Razminas won in straight sets 7-5 and 6-3.

Krohn, ranked No. 16, claimed his first set against second-ranked Rondon by a 6-3 score but Rondon posted 6-3 and 6-4 wins in the next two sets to win the No. 1 singles match. Quintela needed three sets to record the fourth team point for the Argos. Quintela won the first set 6-3 followed by Guimarães winning the second set 7-6 with a 7-5 tiebreaker. Quintela held on for a 7-5 win in the third set.

The final two singles matches were left unfinished. Langerhuizen trailed No. 72 Mateo Martinez 6-5 in the third set after winning the first set 6-3 and dropping the second 7-5. Mos was tied 6-6 with Sabio, ranked No. 46, in the third set. Mos won the first set 6-3 and Sabio won the second set 7-5.

The Flames will await the NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Selection Show on May 4 at 8:30 p.m. EDT to learn of their future. The Men's Regionals will be contested May 11-12 at a site to be announced.


Coach Patric Hynes' thoughts: