Score: No. 2 Keiser 2, D-II No. 3 Saint Leo 5
Records: Keiser (0-1), Saint Leo (1-0)
Location: Saint Leo, Fla.
Venue: Saint Leo Tennis Courts



The No. 2 Keiser men's tennis got the season off to a rough start on Saturday, falling to their Division II opponents of Saint Leo, 2-5.

• Saint Leo had the early advantage in doubles, taking the win on court one 6-4.
• The Lions wrapped up the doubles point in quick succession on courts two and three, winning 7-6(3) on three and 7-6(1) on two.

• Martin Soukal opened singles play with a 6-3, 6-3 win on court two over Heber Santos.
• Vincent Thiel and Nicolas Bacella followed with wins on courts three and four over Gaston Cantero and No. 7 Yassir Kilani.
• The Lions got their final point of the day on court one with Ivan Curbelo besting No. 10 Shaheed Alam, 6-2, 6-1. 
• No. 9 Martin Carrizo put Keiser on the board on court five with a 5-7, 6-3, 10-4 win over Luis Iriarte.
• No. 8 Soufiane El Mesbahi followed it up with a 6-0, 6-2 over his fellow countryman Ghali Mensour.

"Not our best performance today to be honest," said Head Coach, Daniel Finn, "In the beginning, I was happy with how we came out of the gate in doubles and competed hard for the doubles point. From there, I thought that we had a big letdown going into singles and just didn't maintain the energy going into singles that the boys had in doubles. Obviously, Saint Leo has a strong team and they were able to expose our lack of focus. On a positive note, we will have a quick turnaround and play another challenging opponent in Barry on Monday."


Keiser will turn around to play the top Division II team in the country on Monday as they travel to Barry in Miami Shores, Fla.