MELBOURNE, Fla.- The Saint Leo men’s tennis team came up short on Saturday, falling 8-1 to the No. 36 ranked Florida Tech Panthers in Sunshine State Conference action from the Free Avenue Courts.

The Lions (0-4, 0-1 SSC) fell behind  after dropping a pair of doubles matches in consecutive sets. The sophomore tandem of Yves Jacobs and Jeff Hanrahan picked up the only doubles victory for the Lions at the No. 3 spot, defeating Michael Schmidt and Jorge Abarca-Montero, 8-4.

The Panthers (1-1, 1-0 SSC ) clinched their victory by sweeping all six singles matches.  Freshman Tim Balz-Herrmann dropped his first set 6-1 and sent the second to a tiebreaker before falling short at No. 4 singles to Drew Hollis, 7-5. 

SLU hasa week layoff before its next match against Division I  Stetson University, Feb. 20th at SLU Tennis Center.

No. 36 Florida Tech 8, Saint Leo 1

Singles competition
1. Noe Losmozos  (FIT) def. Yves Jacobs (SLU) 6-3, 6-1
2. James McLane (FIT) def. Pablo Chavez (SLU) 6-2, 6-2
3. Jonathan Hanna (FIT) def. Jose Morales (SLU) 6-1, 6-4
4. Drew Hollis (FIT) def. Tim Balz-Herrmann (SLU) 6-1, 7-5
5. Yan Carlo Rodriguez (FIT) def. Michael Calloway (SLU) 6-1, 6-0
6. Alfonso Duarte (FIT) def. Jeff Hanrahan (SLU) 6-2, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. Losmozos/Hanna (FIT) def. Chaves/Morales (SLU) 8-4
2. McLane/Hollis (FIT) def. Balz-Herrmann/Calloway (SLU) 8-6
3. Jacobs/Hanrahan (SLU) def. Schmidt/Abarca (FIT) 8-4