Lopes fall to Pilots in Golden State Invite finals

Sunday, March 12

Davis, Calif.

Grand Canyon

Portland

3/12/2017 10:39:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Jake Hernandez

DAVIS, Calif. – The Grand Canyon men's tennis team dropped a 4-3 match to Portland in the Golden State Invitational championship round on Sunday afternoon.

In a co-hosted tournament by UC Davis and Sacramento State, the Golden State Invite had eight teams, including WAC-rival New Mexico State. In the third place match, UC Davis defeated Sac State by the score of 7-0.

"The guys did a great job battling," GCU head coach Greg Prudhomme commented. "We narrowly lost the doubles point, we won a solid set on court No. 3 with the freshmen Lorenzo (Fucile) and Valetin (Lang) and courts No. 1 and 2 could have gone either way. But they went Portland's way."

After the pair, Adrian Legarreta and Philip Kuehnen, on court No. 1, lost a close one, the freshmen duo, Lorenzo Fucile and Valentin Lang came through for the Lopes at No. 3 to even the doubles sets. It came down to No. 2 court with partners, Mathieu Rajaonah and Mathieu Ounanian ultimately dropping the set as Portland took the 1-0 advantage into singles.

"The guys started strong in singles," Prudhomme added. "We did lose fairly quickly on courts No. 1 and 2 but on the other four courts were going in our direction for most of the way and we were able to win three of the four. However, we dropped court No. 3 in three sets."

After quickly falling 3-0 to the Pilots, the Lopes responded by earning three of the next four points of the match. Legarreta gave the Lopes hope at No. 3 by defeating his opponent, 6-4, 6-3 to earn the Lopes their first point of the match. On court No. 6, Justin Cvitanovic battled his way to a Lopes' point by the scores of 7-6 (2), 6-2. The deficit turned up too large for Grand Canyon as they ultimately dropped the match 4-3 to Portland.

"The guys wanted to get the win, they had a great weekend and they are not discouraged," Prudhomme noted. "They are taking a lot of positives in this event. They are looking forward to applying what they gained into the upcoming home matches and conference matches just around the corner."

Up next, the Lopes will host the next six matches at the new GCU Tennis Facility. Starting with UC Riverside and Idaho on Wednesday, March 15, the Lopes will look to build off the momentum gained from the Golden State Invite. After the match against Montana on Monday, March 20, the Lopes will host three straight conference matches against New Mexico State (March 24), UMKC (March 25) and Chicago State (March 26) for a weekend full of action.

Grand Canyon 3, Portland 4

Singles
No. 1: Pervolarakis (UP) def. Mustitelli (GCU), 6-0, 6-1
No. 2: M. Garcia (UP) def. Rajaonah (GCU), 6-3, 6-2
No. 3: Legarreta (GCU) def. P. Garcia (UP), 6-4, 6-3
No. 4: Donat (UP) def. Fucile (GCU), 3-6, 6-1, 6-0
No. 5: Lang (GCU) def. Fan (UP), 7-6, 6-3
No. 6: Cvitanovic (GCU) def. Madison (UP), 7-6 (2), 6-2

Order of finish: 1, 2, 4, 6, 3, 5

Doubles
No. 1: Pervolarakis/M. Garcia (UP) def. Legarreta/Kuehnen (GCU), 6-4
No. 2: P. Garcia/Fan (UP) def. Rajaonah/Ounanian (GCU), 6-3
No. 3: Fucile/Lang (GCU) def. Fisher/Donat (UP), 6-4

Order of finish: 1, 3, 2