Pensacola, Fla. – Lynn University's ninth-ranked men's tennis team saw its 2017 campaign come to a close on Sunday in the NCAA Division II South Region I Championship match. The fourth-seeded Fighting Knights dropped a 5-3 contest to the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, University of West Florida, preventing Lynn from a trip back to the national championships.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: West Florida 5, Lynn 3
Records: #1 West Florida (28-1), #9 Lynn (20-6)
Location: Ralph "Skeeter" Carson Tennis Complex |Pensacola, Fla.
All-time Series: West Florida leads 12-5
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HOW IT HAPPENED:

• For the second time in as many days, the Fighting Knights got off on the right foot with a 2-1 advantage through doubles play.
• The Argos got on the board first with an 8-3 win at No. 3 doubles, but the Fighting Knights countered with big victories at the top two flights over UWF's pair of ranked squads.
• Eighth-ranked Mehdi Laalej and Florian Clemares posted a big upset at the top flight, taking down No. 1-ranked Alex Peyrot and Pedro Dumont, 8-4. The UWF tandem held a 22-2 doubles record at No. 1 coming into the match.
• Jose Porfirio Ordonez and Kay Bartmann followed up with a momentum-garnering 8-6 win at No. 2, outlasting 23rd-ranked Gabriel Dias and Pedro Roese. It was the first loss of the year for Dias and Roese, who came into the match with a 19-0 record.
• The momentum quickly shifted once singles play started however, as UWF notched the first two wins of solo play.
• The Argos first won at No. 4 singles, 6-0, 7-6 (10-8), and then at No. 5, 7-5, 6-2.
• Clemares kept the Blue and White alive with his second triumph of the day, winning the sixth flight in straight sets (6-4, 7-6 (7-3)).
• Ranked singles player for UWF sealed the deal in the top half of the lineup.
• In a battle of top-five singles players at No. 1, UWF's fourth-ranked Peyrot defeated Lynn's fifth-ranked Mehdi Laalej, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2).
• 45^th-ranked Warren Kuhn clinched the title at No. 3 with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, victory.

• Jean-Baptiste Mateo finishes his junior season 23-0 in singles, the only Fighting Knight since Lynn joined the NCAA in 1997 to produce 23 singles wins in a single season. 
• With a 20-6 record, Lynn secures its first 20-win season since 2012 and just the second since 2007.
• Four of the six singles matches had at least one set go to a tiebreaker. UWF won three of the four tiebreakers.
• West Florida's only loss the season came at the hands of Georgia Gwinnet of the NAIA.
• The Argos have ended the Fighting Knights' season in the South Regional two years in a row.