GCU falls to No. 7 UCLA in season opener

Wednesday, January 18

Los Angeles, CA

2 PM

Grand Canyon

UCLA

1/18/2017 7:09:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Samantha Fell

LOS ANGELES – The Grand Canyon men's tennis team began its season on Wednesday afternoon with a matchup against one of the best programs in the country. The Lopes were defeated 7-0 by the No. 7 UCLA Bruins and fall to 0-1 on the season.

"The guys did a great job out there today," head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "We don't like to see the lopsided score on the loss, but against a Top 10 team in the country, on the road, first match of the season, I was really pleased with the level of play of our players and how hard they competed."

Despite the score, GCU remained competitive in every match of the day. Senior Adrian Legarreta took his opponent to three sets at No. 3 singles and freshman Lorenzo Fucile nearly pulled the upset at No. 4 singles. Fucile lost the tiebreaker 10-8 to fall to Logan Staggs. Justin Cvitanovic also put up a tough fight against Maxime Cressy in the fifth position, falling 7-5, 7-5.

"We had two three-setters that could have easily gone our way," Prudhomme added. "There were a lot of highlights that I was excited to see for taking the court for the first time this year. I'm looking forward to getting back out there again with another nationally ranked team this weekend at Baylor. We're testing these guys and preparing them to have a successful season as it moves on."

GCU will travel to Waco, Texas for back-to-back matches on Saturday, Jan. 21 and Sunday, Jan. 22. The Lopes will take on No. 22 Baylor at 5 p.m. on Saturday and Incarnate Word at 10 a.m. on Sunday.

#7 UCLA 7, Grand Canyon University 0

Singles competition
1. #11 Gage Brymer (UCLA) def. Mathieu Rajaonah (GCU) 6-2, 6-2
2. Martin Redlicki (UCLA) def. Francois Musitelli (GCU) 6-4, 6-3
3. Evan Zhu (UCLA) def. Adrian Legarreta (GCU) 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 10-3
4. Logan Staggs (UCLA) def. Lorenzo Fucile (GCU) 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 10-8
5. #87 Maxime Cressy (UCLA) def. Justin Cvitanovic (GCU) 7-5, 7-5
6. Austin Rapp (UCLA) def. Gregoire Balenci (GCU) 6-2, 6-1

Doubles competition
1. Martin Redlicki/Evan Zhu (UCLA) def. Philip Kuehnen/Adrian Legarreta (GCU) 6-2
2. Joseph Di Giulio/Austin Rapp (UCLA) def. Francois Musitelli/Mathieu Rajaonah (GCU) 6-4
3. Gage Brymer/Maxime Cressy (UCLA) def. Lorenzo Fucile/Valentin Lang (GCU) 7-5

Match Notes:
Grand Canyon University 0-1
UCLA 1-0; National ranking #7
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (6,2,1,4,3,5)