Lopes win Golden State Invite

Sunday, March 11

Sacramento, Calif.

12:00 P.M.

Grand Canyon

UT Arlington

Photo by: Travis Neely

3/11/2018 11:50:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Jerob Moon

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The Grand Canyon men's tennis team won the Golden State Invite with a 4-1 win over UT Arlington on Sunday. This is the first time the Lopes have won the tournament, avenging last season's loss in the championship match against Portland.

"The guys had a huge weekend winning the Golden State Invite," head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "We have been seeing the improvement in practice and in the results from week to week, and last week getting to the final of the Mountain Pacific Invite was a step in the right direction. We kept that momentum this week and applied the experience and took out a team that we lost to in a team tournament last season."

GCU started off strong against the Mavericks taking the doubles point. Justin Cvitanovic and Valentin Lang rebounded from their loss yesterday, winning 6-3 at No. 2. After a loss at No. 1, GCU won the final doubles match at No. 3 with Freddie Grand and Lucas Grego winning 6-4.

The Lopes carried the momentum into singles winning three of the first four matches to win the championship. Mathieu Rajaonah suffered a tough straight set loss at No. 1 giving the Mavericks their lone point of the day. Freddie Grant then responded with a straight set win at No. 6, and Lucas Grego won his sixth match in a row with another straight set win at No. 5.

With GCU up 3-1, Cvitanovic who clinched the match that sent GCU to the final, won at No. 5 in three sets 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 to give the Lopes the championship. Lorenzo Fucile and Valentin Lang were competing in the second sets when their matches were stopped since the Lopes earned the deciding fourth point.

"I'm real proud of the guys for not just in competing hard in the match play, but also in practice," coach Prudhomme said. "They got to see the hard work pay off, but we've still got a lot of work to do. We know what the prize is at the end of the season, and we are gunning for it. So, we're going to keep working hard, but this is a good step in the right direction."

GCU will carry their three-match winning streak and momentum from this weekend's championship into next week when they face Florida Gulf Coast and Illinois State in Fort Myers, Florida.