PENSACOLA, Fla. - The No. 5 UWF men's tennis team (2-2, 1-0 GSC) started out hot with a win in doubles before having to rally from an early deficit in singles to win its conference opener 5-2 over No. 13 Lee (2-1, 1-1 GSC) on Saturday at the Ralph "Skeeter" Carson Tennis Complex.
 
With the Top 15 win, the Argos scratch one back in the all-time series with Lee after dropping a 4-3 contest in Cleveland, Tenn., last season for their first loss in 10 meetings. 
 
Lee got the early advantage with a 6-3 win by Wihan van der Merwe and Jordi Dasi in the No. 3 doubles pairing over Joaquin Estevez and Bernardo Costa. It was just the start of a hotly contested doubles match as UWF grabbed the momentum with two tight wins in the final doubles matchups for the 1-0 lead. Albin Ekenros and Diego Duran defeated Mike and Quinn Groenendijk 6-4. In the clinching No. 1 pairing, Sebastian Sotelo and Sebastian Rondon took down Francisco Faria and Filipe Krohn 7-6 (7-5).  
 
There were two early setbacks for UWF in singles play in the Nos. 1 and 2 matchups, as Faria beat Costa 6-4, 6-2 and van der Merwe beat Sotelo 6-2, 6-4, respectively. However, Rondon topped Quinn Groenendijk 6-2, 6-2 and Mateo Martinez beat Dasi 6-4, 6-1 to squelch the threat of the Flames. 
 
Lee wasn't going away by any means, but the Argos held strong in tight 5 and 6 matchups. At No. 6, Ekenros took down Mike Groenendijk 7-5, 6-2. In the final contest, Duran took the first set over Krohn 6-3 before narrowly falling in the second 7-5, leading to the super tiebreaker in which Duran slammed the door on Lee with a 10-2 final set win.
 
"It was a great match for us today for our home opener," Coach Derrick Racine said after the match. "We had a good crowd show up and there was lots of energy, which really helped the guys. The doubles was super close and we ended up winning the clinching point at No. 1 doubles in a tiebreaker. We were able to carry that momentum over to singles, where we had strong performances at No. 3 by Sebastian Rondon, No. 4 by Mateo Martinez, No. 5 by Diego Duran and the clinching match by Albin Ekenros at No. 6." 

The Argos will look to achieve a winning record next week against another ranked opponent as they travel to Mississippi College to take on the No. 24 Choctaws on February 28 at 1 pm.
 
For complete information on UWF Tennis, follow the team at @TennisUWF on X and @uwf_menstennis on Instagram.