Box Score BANNER ELK, NC – Forced indoors by wet weather, the 42nd-ranked Francis Marion University men's tennis team lost a hard-fought marathon 4-3 decision to Lees-McRae College, Friday (Apr. 7) in Conference Carolinas action.
 
Francis Marion drops to 10-7 overall and suffers its first conference loss (5-1).  FMU, which maintains a half-game lead over second-place Barton College, will play at King University on Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
Playing on a pair of indoor courts, the two teams split the top two doubles matches.  The Bobcats (5-7, 4-3) won at No.1, while FMU sophomores Martin Barbera and Luis Lopez Sarasa were victorious 6-3 at the No.2 rung.  The Patriots then claimed the doubles point when sophomores Harri Lloyd-Evans and Austin Vienna won 6-3 at the No.3 position.
 
Lees-McRae then stormed ahead 3-1 with victories at singles positions No.1, 2, and 3.  FMU junior Leonel Gonzalez trimmed the margin to 3-2 with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win at the No.4 spot and Lopez Sarasa knotted the match at 3-3 with a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win at No.5 singles.
 
However, the Bobcats claimed a straight-sets decision at the No.6 position to win the match.
 
The entire match took nearly seven hours to complete.