GCU falls to UTRGV 5-2

Saturday, March 24

Edinburg, Texas

11:00 A.M.

Grand Canyon

UTRGV

Photo by: Slaven Gujic

3/24/2018 5:48:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

By: Jerob Moon

Edinburg, Texas—The Grand Canyon women's tennis team (6-11, 1-1) lost their first conference match of the season on the road against UTRGV (9-8, 2-0). The Vaqueros took the doubles point and used that momentum heading into singles to win 5-2. It was only the Lopes fourth conference loss in now their fifth season in the WAC.

"The girls lost a tough one today, but I was proud of their effort they definitely battled," head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "We lost the doubles point but it was a nice highlight that freshmen Martina (Lo Pumo) and Autum (Prudhomme) won the last doubles match, so that was helping with a little momentum in the singles. We had solid performances at court two and five, with returners Lana (Rinaldi) and Celina (Buhr), they played real well getting their wins in straight sets."

UTRGV started strong in the doubles competition at the beginning of the match, defeating the Lopes's top two doubles teams to take the point. Lana Rinaldi and Emilia Occhipinti at court one and Valentina Mokrova and Celina Buhr at court two were both beaten by scores of 6-2. Freshmen Martina Lo Pumo and Autum Prudhomme played well at No. 3 winning by a comfortable margin, 6-3, and tried to give the Lopes energy heading into singles.

Winning the final doubles matches did help GCU to start off, Rinaldi won the first singles match of the day at court two 6-0, 7-5. The Vaqueros responded with two straight wins to take a 3-1 lead, but Buhr slowed their momentum winning at No. 5 in straight sets. UTRGV would get the fourth point by defeating Lo Pumo at No. 1. The freshman from Sicily, Italy fought back in the first set after being down big, but lost in tiebreakers and then ran out of gas in the second set. The Vaqueros also won the final match of the day defeating senior Kylie Waschuk in a hard fought three set match, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

GCU will have to quickly put the loss behind them as they take on New Mexico State (6-10, 1-0) tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. (MDT). The Aggies defeated Chicago State in a close 4-3 matchup earlier today, and both teams will look to end the first week of the WAC clusters on a high note.