Seniors shine despite loss

Saturday, April 21

Phoenix, Ariz.

11:00 A.M.

Grand Canyon

NAU

4/21/2018 5:06:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

By: Jerob Moon

PHOENIX—It was a special day for the three seniors that were honored before the women's match against NAU. Gregoire Balenci of the men's team along with Lana Rinaldi and Kylie Waschuk were honored by head coach Greg Prudhomme. Then the team got down to business and faced a good Lumberjack squad. Despite the 6-1 loss, the Lopes played hard pushing two singles matches to three sets, showing they can compete with the No. 1 team in the Big Sky.

"Today was mixed feelings, we had to send off a few of our seniors," Prudhomme said. "So it's always sad when we do that. We really grow to love our players and so to see them gone is sad. But the good side of those mixed fixed feeling is thanking them for the work, sweat, and blood they left for the program. They bleed purple, and we also feel good knowing GCU on and off the tennis court has set them up for bright futures."

"But we're not done here and today's match was a great match to get us ready for next weekend," Prudhomme added. "We had similar conditions with the weather, we played the number one team in the Big Sky, for us being the fourth seed it sure didn't look like it. It looked like two top teams playing each other, so I was real proud of the girls fight today, the score line says 6-1 but it's not indicative of how competitive the match was."

In the doubles competition, NAU took the point with wins at court three and two. Waschuk and Autum Prudhomme were defeated 6-3, and Martina Lo Pumo and Celina Buhr were defeated 6-3, but the No. 1 pair of Rinaldi and Emilia Occhipinti won a competitive match 7-5 trying to give the Lopes momentum heading into singles.

In singles, Ludovica Infantino was inserted into the lineup after Buhr was unable to compete. Infantino performed great, despite not competing in a match since Feb. 9 against Cal State Fullerton, winning at No. 6 in straight sets and picked up her first win of her GCU career. Her win came after Waschuk was defeated at No. 5 in straight sets.

With the score at 2-1 in favor of NAU the Lopes continued to play hard. Lo Pumo at No. 3 after dropping the first set, tied the second set up at 5-5 before lost a close decision 7-5. Occhipinti held the lead in the second set at No. 2, but was unable to finish it off losing 6-1, 6-4. Valentina Mokrova was pushed to a third set, she won the first set 6-3 and then lost a close second set 7-5. In the third the match remained close, but NAU was able to squeak out a win with a 10-8 decision.

Finally at No. 1 Rinaldi battled all day, she took the first set in tiebreakers and then forced tiebreakers in the second set but was unable to get the job done. The senior was the last to finish, as she fell in the third set by another close score 10-7.

The Lopes will use this final non-conference match as a learning experience to prepare for the WAC conference tournament next weekend at the Mesa Tennis Center in Mesa, Ariz. The Lopes enter the tournament as the No. 4 seed and will be facing the No. 5 seeded Chicago State at 9 a.m. on April 26.