Lopes contend but fall to Cal Poly, UT Arlington

Saturday, March 4

Stockton, Calif.

Grand Canyon

Cal Poly

3/5/2017 7:14:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Josh Hauser

STOCKTON, Calif. - In two matches at University of the Pacific's Pacific Mountain Invitational, the Grand Canyon men's tennis team lost to Cal Poly and UT Arlington over the weekend. Freshman Lorenzo Fucile claimed victories in both of his matchups against a highly-ranked Cal Poly team as well as UT Arlington. A third match scheduled for Sunday was canceled due to weather.

"Lorenzo did a fantastic job winning both of his matches against these strong teams," head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "He is showing a high level of competitiveness that we are striving for with all of our players."

To begin the tournament, the Lopes were paired up with No. 1-seeded Cal Poly, a team ranking in the 30s nationally. Early on, it looked as if GCU was poised for the upset.

"The team was really close to being on course for an upset," Prudhomme said. "We got up on three of the singles courts and down on three of the courts. Momentum stayed fairly even with those six split matches. It looked like it was going to come down to the doubles point, but the last match ended up slipping away in the third set."

The first two matchups to finish went to Grand Canyon, with Fucile winning at the No. 3 spot and Valentin Lang taking the No. 5 match. Despite holding the 2-0 lead, the Lopes fell to Cal Poly 4-2.

Prudhomme was pleased with the effort that his young team put on display against a top team: "We know our team is that good. We are just going to keep pushing until we get one of those wins and bring our own ranking up. That was a good sign that we're going in the right direction."

Paired up with UT Arlington for the second match, the Lopes faced a tough match from a logistics standpoint. Due to weather, lighting and a backed up tournament schedule, the location of the match changed facilities and even was paused overnight and forced to resume the next day.

Before the match was suspended for the day, Grand Canyon held a 2-2 lead and was up a set in an in-progress match. GCU returned to play the next day before another facility change. The Lopes went on to lose to the Mavericks 4-2.

"The guys definitely dealt with a lot of adversity," Prudhomme said. "Obviously it's the same for both teams so it's a level playing field. The last two matches slipped away in three sets."

Again it was Fucile picking up a singles victory, recovering from a 6-2 loss in the first set to take the final two sets and the match. Francois Musitelli also claimed victory for GCU, winning in three sets at the No. 1 singles spot.

"Things are going like we thought for this season in that we have a very strong team," Prudhomme said. "We're competing very closely with many of the top teams that we used to not be able to compete with. We do have five sophomores or freshmen playing in the starting lineup. We need this experience, a little more experience and we're going to get through these matches."

The Lopes travel back to California next weekend for the UC Davis Invitational before returning to Phoenix to host their next six in the GCU Tennis Facility on campus. The six-match homestand begins on March 15 with the second half of the homestand featuring the start of WAC play.

Results

vs. Cal Poly
Singles
No. 1: Corey Pang (CP) def. Francois Musitelli (GCU) 6-4, 6-4
No. 2: Ben Donovan (CP) def. Adrian Legarreta (GCU) 6-2, 6-1
No. 3: Lorenzo Fucile (GCU) def. Garrett Auproux (CP) 6-2, 6-3
No. 4: Josh Ortlip (CP) def. Justin Cvitanovic (GCU) 6-3, 6-2
No. 5: Valentin Lang (GCU) def. Antoine Noel (CP) 6-4, 6-4
No. 6: Karl Enander (CP) def. Mathieu Ounanian (GCU) 4-6, 7-6, 6-2

Order of finish (3, 5, 2, 1, 4, 6*)

vs. UT Arlington
Singles
No. 1: Francois Musitelli (GCU) def. Guanarteme Nuez (UTA) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
No. 2: Mario Muniesa (UTA) def. Mathieu Rajaonah (GCU) 6-2, 6-3
No. 3: Jhonathan Gonzalez (UTA) def. Adrian Legarreta (GCU) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
No. 4: Lorenzo Fucile (GCU) def. Daniel Armengol (UTA) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3
No. 5: Mauricio Del Rio (UTA) def. Justin Cvitanovic (GCU) 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
No. 6: Pablo Colvee (UTA) def. Valentin Lang (GCU) 7-6, 5-7, 6-2

Order of finish (2, 4, 3, 1, 5, 6)