ORLANDO, Fla. – In a matchup between two nationally-ranked teams, the No. 13 Wesleyan men's tennis team was defeated by No. 23 Southwestern, 5-4, on Saturday night from the USTA National Tennis Center. Wesleyan (1-2) heads back to Middletown with two straight 5-4 defeats to ranked programs while the Pirates (3-4) shake off a loss to No. 1 Case Western last night.
 
The doubles action saw Wesleyan take a 2-1 lead with wins coming from #1 and #2. Peter Anker '22 combined with Ben Mitchell '24 for an 8-4 victory at #1 over Vesko Lekovic and Hemanshu Rambojun while Zach Lieb '22 and Harry Portnoy '24 took down Hunter Bajoit and Jared Burton 8-6 in a matchup at #2. Southwestern claimed an 8-3 win at #3 doubles to salvage one point before singles play began.
 
The Cardinals continued to build a lead as Mitchell earned his second win of the day, defeating Anton Borovik 6-3, 6-0 at #3 to hand Wesleyan a 3-1 lead in the team leaderboard. The Pirates, however, would rally back with wins in the next four singles matches to earn a crucial four points which proved just enough for the win in the match.
 
Lieb managed a win at #2 to finish off the match as he split the opening sets 6-2, 3-6 with Lekovic before winning the third set tiebreaker 10-5 for his senior win of the day.
 
Wesleyan returns home where they will begin NESCAC play on Wednesday against Trinity.