LAKELAND, Fla. -- The Bates men's tennis team wrapped up its spring-opening trip to Florida with a 6–1 loss at No. 14 Division II Florida Southern Tuesday afternoon at the Wynee Warden Tennis Center.

The Bobcats dropped all three doubles matches, leaving Florida Southern with a 1–0 edge heading into singles play. Bates came closest at No. 1 doubles, where Eric Diop and Josh Maller fell by a narrow 7–5 margin, while the pairings of Nicolas Ozer and James Sacco and Phillippe Kosyagin and Will Marshall were defeated at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

Diop delivered Bates' lone point of the afternoon with a straight-set victory at No. 2 singles, defeating senior George Russell (Lymington, England) ( 6–4, 7–6 (7-5). The sophomore held off a second-set push from Russell before closing out the match in the tiebreaker to earn the Bobcats' only singles win.

At the top of the lineup, Kosyagin battled at No. 1 singles, splitting the first two sets before falling in a third-set tiebreak to senior Mario Garoz (Toledo, Spain). Florida Southern (3-1) secured the remaining singles points at Nos. 3 through 6 to seal the match.

Bates (0-3) now turns its attention to its spring home debut, as the Bobcats will host a doubleheader on Sunday, March 1, welcoming the University of Southern Maine for a 9 a.m. match before facing No. 32 Brandeis University at 1 p.m. in Merrill Gymnasium.