LIVINGSTON, Ala. – The No. 9 Lee University men's tennis team came from behind to defeat No. 17 West Alabama Friday afternoon at Vaughan Tennis Complex. The Flames improved to 10-1 overall and 5-1 against GSC opponents, while the Tigers dropped to 11-5, 3-2 GSC.

Rytis Razminas and Francisco Guimarães opened doubles action with a 6-4 win over Maxim Goncharov and Afonso Portugal at the third position. Quinn Groenendijk and Jip Langerhuizen outlasted Gabriel Garay and Sebastiao Vilas 7-5 to secure the doubles point for the Flames.

The final doubles match was left unfinished with the 28^th-ranked team of Federico Iturbe and Jacob Tapia leading Stefan Mos and Filipe Krohn 6-5.

Langerhuizen lost 6-1, 6-2 to Portugal at No. 3 singles to begin singles competition. Garay, ranked No. 44, beat Krohn, ranked No. 12, 6-4 and 6-2 at No. 1 singles to give UWA their first lead at 2-1. Tapia needed three sets to claim the No. 2 singles match against Groenendijk, ranked No. 37. Groenendijk won the opening set 7-5 before Tapia fired back with set scores of 6-2 and 6-3 to push the Tigers within one of the team win.

Mos dropped his opening set to Goncharov 6-3 at No. 4 singles. Mos posted the comeback win with a 6-3 score in the second set and a 6-2 margin in the third set.

Guimarães evened the team score at 3-3 with a three-set match with two sets needing a tiebreaker to determine a winner. Iturbe won the first set with a 7-5 tiebreaker and Guimarães forced a third set with a 6-2 mark in the second set. The third set once again needed a tiebreaker where Guimarães returned the favor with a 7-5 score to post the win.

Razminas and Vilas were left to decide the team winner at No. 6 singles. Razminas held on to win the first set 7-5 then outscored Vilas 7-3 in the second set tiebreaker to clinch the Lee team victory.

The Flames return to action next Friday against Auburn University at Montgomery. The GSC contest is scheduled for an 11 a.m. start at the DeVos Tennis Center.

 
Coach Patric Hynes' thoughts:
" Really hard place to play against a high quality team. We did well to grab the doubles point from a break down on two courts. The momentum turned against us again in singles and to fight our way back from 1-3 down was a massive effort by Stefan, Francisco and Rytis. We'll get some rest and start getting ready for AUM and Montevallo next weekend."