GCU suffers 1st conference loss

Saturday, March 31

Kansas City, Mo.

8:00 A.M.

Grand Canyon

UMKC

3/31/2018 12:32:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Jerob Moon

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The Grand Canyon men's tennis team suffered a tough loss to host school UMKC in the final match of the first WAC cluster. There were close matches throughout doubles and singles, and the Roos took control at the end of the match.

"The match started off as expected, UMKC is a strong team," head coach Greg Prudhome said. "We lost the doubles point, it close and could've gone either way. Lorenzo played really well in singles and then we lost a pair of three set matches. The 1-6 score certainly didn't show how close the matches were with the tight doubles going either way and the three set matches."

In doubles the Lopes competed in tough match and lost a close 2-1 decision. Mathieu Rajaonah and Lorenzo Fucile lost at court one 6-3 in the first match. Lucas Grego and Freddie Grant won their third match in a row at position three, winning comfortably 6-3 and evened the doubles point up at one apiece. The doubles point came down to the final doubles match at court two and Gregoire Balenci and Justin Cvitanovic. The pair fought hard, even after Cvitanovic suffered an injury, but UMKC won the close match in tiebreakers 7-6 (7-4).

Heading into singles the Lopes had to make a lineup change with Cvitanovic unable to compete. Grant moved up to No. 5 and Leo Andreolli in just his second singles match of the spring moved up to No. 6. Andreolli was the first to finish losing in straight sets 6-1, 6-1, and Rajaonah lost at court one 6-1, 6-2 as the Roos jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead.

Fucile responded with his seventh straight win at position two 6-3, 6-2 to give the Lopes their first points of the match. This win gave Fucile his tenth singles win of the season, marking the second straight season he reached the double-digit win mark.

After the court two win by the Lopes, UMKC would take control at the end of the match winning the final three decisions. Grant suffered a straight set loss in his first career match at No. 5, and Grego and Balenci lost a pair of close three set matches.

Prudhomme and the rest of the team will put this result behind them and focus on the final two matches of WAC play. "We want to finish strong," Prudhomme said. "We've got two weeks off to get healthy and to train. We want to finish strong and see if we can get a couple of wins two weeks in Chicago and still finish right at or near the top of the regular season, depending on how some of the other results go. And then get fired up for the tournament, we've got our eyes set on that still."

The Lopes will have two weeks to regroup before the final two matches of the regular season. GCU will travel up to Chicago and will face New Mexico State and Chicago State on April 14 and 15.