Lopes sweep WAC opener

Thursday, March 29

Kansas City, Mo.

3:00 P.M.

Grand Canyon

Seattle U

Photo by: Travis Neely

3/29/2018 8:42:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Jerob Moon

KANSAS CITY, Mo.-- The Grand Canyon men's tennis (13-4, 1-0) team started the WAC conference cluster with a 7-0 shutout of Seattle U (7-10, 0-1). The Lopes also extended their winning streak to six matches as the team played well at all courts to open the conference season.

"The guys got off to a great start in conference play," head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "They did a good job getting the doubles point to start off, so we had good momentum and the guys kept it going all the way through. We did lose two first sets at court three and five, but Gregoire (Balenci) and Justin (Cvitanovic) battled back. I was proud of the guys winning the match indoors, it is good preparation because we are scheduled for indoor matches tomorrow based on weather reports."

The Lopes jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead after sweeping the doubles matches. Mathieu Rajaonah and Lorenzo Fucile took the match at court one 6-2, and Gregoire Balenci and Justin Cvitanovic won comfortably 6-4. Lucas Grego and Freddie Grant at court three were down early 5-1, but came back to win the match in a tiebreaker 7-6 (1). This was the first time this season that the Lopes have swept all three doubles matches.

GCU continued their great play into singles, taking the first set on four of the six courts. Lucas Grego won the first match in straight sets and extended his singles winning streak to nine matches. Rajaonah won his third match in a row with another straight set win, and Fucile followed up with a 6-2, 7-5 to clinch the match for the Lopes. Grant added to the lead with his fifth win at No. 6 this year, winning the competitive first set in tiebreakers, and then finished off his opponent in the second set 6-3. After dropping the first set Balenci and Cvitanovic regrouped and both won their matches in three sets to give the Lopes their first shutout victory of 2018.

GCU will have a short break until the next WAC match tomorrow morning, when they take on UTRGV (8-9, 0-1) at 7 a.m. The Vaqueros lost their first conference match to New Mexico State 6-1.