The Grand Canyon University women's tennis team opened its 2014 campaign today and narrowly missed out on their first win as a new member of the Western Athletic Conference, falling 4-3 to New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM.
"I'm very proud of the girls," said head coach Greg Prudhomme. "It is a tough loss and knowing that we played well enough to win it. Other than the results on the paper, everything went great for us. New Mexico is a team that has won conference titles in the past, but we gave them all they could handle. We look forward to a tough battle against the University of Arizona next week."
New Mexico earned the doubles point, despite GCU producing match points in the No.3 and No.1 matches.
Tatum Prudhomme made her collegiate debut, teaming with
Priscilla Annoual in the top doubles match, but fell 7-5.
Silvia Tumova and
Alexandra Petrzalkova were knotted at 6-6 when their match was called off, despite having match point opportunities.
Annoual's win in the top singles match was impressive as she defeated Michaela Bezdickova, ranked 18
th in the ITA Mountain Regional Rankings, 7-6, 4-6, 1-0 (10-6).
GCU also recorded wins at the No. 5 and 6 matches. Tumova split her opening two sets at No. 5 singles, but used a 10-6 match tiebreak to secure the win.
Petrzalkov won in straight sets at No. 6.
GCU will now make the short trip to Tucson where they will face Arizona on Friday at 10 a.m.
NM 4 GCU 3