Women's Tennis Pulls Off Upset of FPU

Sunday, February 10

Glendale, AZ

12 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Fresno Pacific

Jordan Bridges

2/10/2013 6:08:00 PM | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis

Men Fall to Sunbirds

The Grand Canyon University tennis program wrapped up a busy weekend of play at the Paseo Racquet Center in Glendale, Ariz.

The 14^th-ranked GCU women were 6-3 winners over Fresno Pacific today, running their record to 4-0. The 10^th-ranked Antelope men fell 6-3 to Fresno Pacific and their record stands at 4-2 after the opening weekend of play.

This is the first season for Fresno Pacific in the PacWest Conference and they carry a history of winning. The Sunbird men played in the last five NAIA National Championships, winning two. The women have been in the last six of seven title matches, winning once.

The Grand Canyon women got off to a quick start in their match winning all three doubles points. Priscilla Annoual and Justine Majan held to tie their match at 8-8, eventually winning 7-5 in the tiebreak.

The No. 1 singles match today saw Annoual, ranked 26^th in the nation, drop a three-set thriller to 16^th-ranked Marie Boura. GCU picked up straight-set wins from Majan (No. 3), Frederique Van de Velde (No.5) and Jordan Bridges (No. 6).

“We have had some great accomplishments over the years with the GCU women's tennis team, but today's win against Fresno Pacific is the biggest win we've had since I became the coach,” said head coach Greg Prudhomme. “Fresno Pacific has spent many years at the top of the NAIA national rankings and their addition to the PacWest conference makes our conference one of the toughest in the country. It shows how far our team has come over the last few years. Our returners and new players really came together as the new GCU tennis team for a great win.”

The Antelope men took one of three doubles points, with Felix Schueller and Alexander Roggenkamp winning 8-3 at No. 2.

Arjun Bal and Ramon Abaitua were also were winners for the men. Bal made a tremendous rally from a 6-0 opening set loss to win 7-6 in the second and 10-3 in the match tiebreak. Abaitua’s straight-set win was his first victory of the season in only his second singles match.

“The men's team fought valiantly in their sixth match in the past five days,” added Prudhomme. “Playing against Fresno Pacific was going to be a tough chore anyway, but going in without one of our starters made and extra challenge, so I was extremely pleased with the strong effort and with how close we came to the win. The way the team played these last few days bodes well for the rest of the season and for our transition into D-I next season.”

The women will be back in action on Feb. 14 when they begin a stretch that has them playing four matches in five days at Paseo. Up first will be a match against one of the nation’s best in BYU-Hawai’i at 1 p.m. The full schedule for the weekend can be found at www.GCULopes.com. The men are off until March 8, when they will host Colorado Mesa at 9:30 a.m.

GCU 6 FPU 3 (women)

FPU 6 GCU 3 (men)