GCU Posts Strong Showing at NMSU Invite

Friday, September 11

Las Cruces, N.M.

All Day

Grand Canyon

New Mexico State

Photo by: Darryl Webb

9/13/2015 11:10:00 PM | Women's Tennis

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The Grand Canyon University women's tennis team opened its fall slate at New Mexico State's Invitational this weekend taking on teams such as New Mexico, Arizona Christian, UTEP, and Western New Mexico.

"The girls kicked off the season with a strong showing at the New Mexico State Invite," said head coach Greg Prudhomme. "I was real proud how all of the players on the team started off on the same page as they ended on last year and in doing so gave a great example for the new players that joined them on this trip."

The Lopes opened the tournament by going 8-4 in singles and 2-1 in doubles on Friday, before continuing on that success throughout the weekend.

In singles, junior Tatum Prudhomme won the consolation final in the first flight of singles. She fell in the opening round against UTEP's Vivienne Kulicke, but made a pair of strong straight set victories over Arizona Christian and Tarleton State to win the final.

Junior Lana Rinaldi defeated players from New Mexico State and Western New Mexico in the fourth flight to make it to the quarterfinals. She fell to an opponent from UTEP, but was able to come back on the tournament's final day to win third place over Gabrielle Joyce from New Mexico State 6-3, 3-6,10-4. In the third set, she was down 5-1, but was able to battle back for the victory.

Marie Deleval also competed in the fourth flight. During the match on Sunday, she made a comeback over an opponent from UTEP to win the match. She was down 5-1 in the third set, but came back for the 7-5 victory.

Alexandra Petrzalkova advanced to the consolation finals in second flight but fell to Ashleigh Elward from Tarleton State in the match.

In the third flight, junior Susan Baklini and senior Lana Macukat each advanced to the quarterfinals, while newcomer Sofia Helgstrand earned her way to the consolation quarterfinals.

"By competing with a strong attitude and a great effort, the players were fighting hard for every point, set, and match in singles and doubles," explained Prudhomme. "They showed a lot of great teamwork and support for one another."

In doubles, Petrzalkova and Prudhomme went 4-1 in the first flight to advance to the quarterfinals with wins over UTEP and New Mexico State. They took third place overall in the draws. Also in the first flight, Rinaldi and Macukat went 2-2 during the weekend.

Baklini teamed up with Deleval in the second flight to earn a 6-2 victory over a pair from UTEP. In the next round, they faced a mixed team of GCU's Helgstrand and New Mexico's Ruth Copas who defeated the GCU duo in a tiebreaker. Helgstrand and Copas went on to the championship match where they fell to a pair from New Mexico.

"By competing the way we teach them on the team at GCU, they were able to earn overall winning records in both singles and doubles which is a good sign of what's to come," concluded Prudhomme. "Overall, we're looking forward to getting back to the practice court and having a few weeks until our next event at the San Diego State Invite."

Grand Canyon will continue their fall tournament schedule on Oct. 2-4 in San Diego, Calif. A full recap of the event will be available at www.gculopes.com.