MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – For the second straight year, the Lee University men's tennis team had its season end in the first round of the NCAA Division II South Region with a 4-1 loss to Saint Leo University Monday afternoon at the Buccaneer Tennis Center on the campus of Barry University.
The ninth-ranked and No. 5 seeded Flames grabbed an early advantage after Rytis Razminas and Francisco Guimarães collected a 6-1 win at No. 3 doubles over Dylan Andrianaly and Thomas Buchard.
Saint Leo, ranked No. 5 and seeded fourth, responded with wins in the final two contests to earn the doubles point. The No. 2 ranked doubles team of Jose David Segovia and Kodai Kato doubled-up Quinn Groenendijk and Jip Langerhuizen 6-3, while Eduardo Cohen and Shay Sarfati outlasted Stefan Mos and Filipe Krohn 7-5 at No. 2 doubles to secure the doubles win for the Lions.
Segovia, ranked No. 13 in singles, opened singles play with a 6-2, 6-0 defeat of 27
th-ranked Groenendijk. Mahit Mekala pushed Saint Leo to within one point of advancing with a 6-3, 6-0 win against Guimarães at the fifth position.
Razminas, ranked No. 75, dropped his opening set at No. 6 singles 6-2 to Sarfati. He forced a third set with a 6-3 second-set margin and completed the comeback win with a 6-4 score in the third set to end Saint Leo's hope for a shutout win.
In a battle of top 25 players, No. 11 Krohn and No. 23 Andrianaly split the first two sets with Krohn winning the opening set 6-2 and Andrianaly the second set 6-1. The two battled through the third set with Andrianaly holding off Krohn 7-5 to win the individual match and clinch the team victory for Saint Leo.
The final two singles matches were left unfinished. At No. 3 singles, Langerhuizen was leading 72
nd-ranked Cohen 5-4 in the third set. Mos and Kato, ranked No. 39, were tied 6-6 in the third set of their No. 4 singles contest.
The Flames complete the season with a 14-3 record with all three losses coming to teams ranked in the top five of the ITA rankings. Saint Leo improves to 16-5 and advance to the South Region No. 1 Final against either Barry or Tuskegee.
Lee made its second straight trip to the South Regional as the No. 5 seed and losing both times to fourth-seeded Saint Leo. Last year, Saint Leo held off the Lee men 4-3 in Valdosta, Georgia.
Coach Patric Hynes' thoughts:
