Men's tennis shares WAC regular season title

Sunday, April 10

Kansas City, Mo.

11 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Kansas City

4/11/2016 12:19:00 AM | Men's Tennis

By: Steven Gonzalez

KANSAS CITY – The Grand Canyon men's tennis team set themselves up to claim its first ever Western Athletic Conference title after going into Sunday's match against Missouri-Kansas City unbeaten in conference. The Lopes picked up three wins in singles play against the Roos but UMKC was able to prevail with a tight 4-3 win over GCU. Despite the loss, GCU has earned a share of the WAC regular season title along with UMKC and New Mexico State.

"We are pleased to be sharing the conference title with two other great teams," head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "The guys came to as close losing as they did winning throughout the match. We had a lot of things going against us but I am so proud of how hard our guys fought."

Instead of starting the match with doubles, both teams squared off in singles first. UMKC couldn't have asked for a better start to the match, winning all three matches from Court 1 through 3 to take the early 3-0. With all the pressure on the Lopes, GCU stormed back with three straight wins from the bottom of the lineup to tie the match.

Mathieu Rajaonah got GCU's first win of the day on Court 4 over Mike Psarros. After Psarros took the first set 6-4, GCU was one set away from being defeated but Rajaonah stormed back to take the match with back-to-back 6-4 sets. Meidy Chazeau made it two wins in a row for the Lopes with a another three-set victory on Court 5 defeating Vinh Pham 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. In the final singles match of the day, Justin Cvitanovic defeated Amaury Navette 6-3, 7-5 to tie the match at 3-3.

UMKC would seal the win in doubles, sweeping all three matches to take the match 4-3.

"We would have loved to be the champion by ourselves," Prudhomme added. "We had one goal before the season started and that was to be the WAC champion in the regular season and that is what we are. The amount of work the guys have put in this year has been fantastic and we are now in company with some great teams."

Results
Singles
1. Airam Castellano (UMKC) def. Mitch Maroscher (GCU) 6-1, 6-3
2. Andrey Smirnov (UMKC) def. Felix Schueller (GCU) 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6)
3. Uldis Gaismins (UMKC) def. Alexander Roggenkamp (GCU) 7-5, 6-1
4. Mathieu Rajaonah (GCU) def. Mike Psarros (UMKC) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
5. Meidy Chazeau (GCU) def. Vinh Pham (UMKC) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
6. Justin Cvitanovic (GCU) def. Amaury Navette (UMKC) 6-3, 7-5
Doubles
1. Airam Castellano/Mike Psarros (UMKC) def. Alexander Roggenkamp/Felix Schueller (GCU) 7-5
2. Uldis Gaismins/Amaury Navette (UMKC) def. Mitch Maroscher/Meidy Chazeau (GCU) 7-5
3. Andrey Smirnov/Vinh Pham (UMKC) def. Adrian Legarreta/Gregoire Balenci (GCU) 7-6 (7-2)
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,3,2,4,5,6)