Lopes' season ends in semifinals

Saturday, April 28

Mesa Tennis Center / Mesa, Ariz.

9:00 A.M.

Grand Canyon

UTRGV

4/28/2018 7:50:00 PM | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Jerob Moon

MESA, Ariz.—Both Grand Canyon tennis teams saw their seasons end in the WAC Conference Tennis Tournament on Saturday. In front of a hometown crowd at the Mesa Tennis Center, the women lost a close 4-3 match to top seeded UTRGV, and the men lost a 4-2 decision to the No. 2 seed New Mexico State. The women wrap up the season with a record of 8-15 and the men finish with a 16-7 record.

The women got off to a good start against the Vaqueros winning the doubles points thanks to hard fought wins at the No. 3 and No. 1 positions. Senior Kylie Waschuk and Autum Prudhomme at court three won 6-4, Celina Buhr and Ludovica Infantino lost 6-4 setting the stage for the Lopes' No. 1 pair, Lana Rinaldi and Emilia Occhipinti. The duo won a hard-fought match 7-5 to give GCU an early 1-0 lead.

In singles the Vaqueros regrouped and took two of the first three singles matches. At No. 4 Buhr suffered a straight set loss, but Occhipinti responded with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 2. UTRGV leveled the team score at 2-2 by defeating Valentina Mokrova in straight sets at No. 5.

The Lopes regain the lead in the late stages of the match with Rinaldi's 7-5, 6-3 win at No. 1. With the score at 3-2 in favor of GCU, the team only needed one more win to advance to the championship. UTRGV tied the match up with a win at No. 6, making the No. 3 singles match the deciding match for both teams.
Martina Lo Pumo lost the first set 6-4 but forced the second set to go into tiebreakers. Lo Pumo and Marine Darzyan traded points back and forth until UTRGV won the final two points to win 7-6 (8-6) and advance to the championship match.

The men faced the Aggies in their semifinal matchup and just like the women, started off strong by winning the doubles point. Mathieu Rajaonah and Lorenzo Fucile won at No. 1 in convincing fashion winning 6-1, and Valentin Lang and Gregoire Balenci won at No. 2 giving the Lopes the doubles point.

With the 1-0 lead in hand, Fucile extended the lead in singles winning in a quick three set match 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. The Aggies responded to tie the match up at 2-2 when they won against Lang at No. 5 and Grego at No. 6. They would take a 3-2 lead with a hard fought 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 over Balenci.

With the score 3-2 in favor the Aggies the Lopes needed to win the final two matches if they hoped to make it to the championship match. Grant at No. 6 won the first set 6-4 but dealt with cramps in the second set and lost 6-3. In the third set Grant fought back after being down 5-2 and forced tiebreakers. Louis Mendard would take control in the tiebreakers winning 7-6 (7-2) to move the Aggies to the championship. Rajaonah's match in the third set was stopped as he held a 2-1 lead over WAC player of the Year Chris Goncalves.