Lopes lose close decision

Saturday, April 7

Seattle, Wash.

8:00 A.M.

Grand Canyon

UMKC

4/7/2018 2:13:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

By: Jerob Moon

SEATTLE, Wash.—The Grand Canyon women's tennis team suffered a close 4-3 loss to UMKC in their second to last conference match of the season. The Lopes (6-13, 1-3) had a chance to clinch the win in the final singles match of the day but were unable to close it out as the Roos (11-9, 3-1) extended their lead on GCU in the conference standings.

"The girls came up just short but played great today," head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "They made some improvements in the last couple of weeks in certain positions so that was nice to see. It was too bad we came up one point short beating a team in the conference but it's a sign that our level is right there."

UMKC took the doubles point after winning two out of three. After the Roos took the first match the Lopes responded with a win at No. 1 with Lana Rinaldi and Emilia Occhipinti who won their team leading seventh doubles match of the season. With the score tied at one, it all came down to the number three match with Valentina Mokrova and Autum Prudhomme who teamed up for the first time this season. The pair fought hard but UMKC took the win in a close 6-4 decision to take an early 1-0 lead heading into singles.

In singles, the teams kept the score close by splitting the first four matches. Emilia Occhipinti earned a win at No. 3 to give the Lopes their first point of the day, and Martina Lo Pumo moved down a position to No. 2 and picked up a nice three set win 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to keep GCU in the match.

With the score in UMKC's favor 3-2, senior Kylie Waschuk stepped up in a big spot at No. 6 with GCU in danger of losing the match. Waschuk won her match in straight sets to tie the score up with one final singles match to go.

Mokrova at No. 5 took the first set and had a chance to clinch the match in the second set, but was unable to finish off the match as UMKC took the set in tiebreakers. The Roos would finish off the match in the third set winning 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 to take the win away from the Lopes and improve to 3-1 in conference play.
Despite the loss coach Prudhomme and the rest of the team is looking at the bigger picture, knowing that the regular season experience could pay off for them come conference tournament time.

"We certainly want the wins but we also want to know the levels are there, so if we put ourselves in that situation moving forward again, which is the plan to do when we get into the tournament and if we keep making those improvements then we can get those close wins," Prudhomme said.

GCU will finish WAC play tomorrow when they take on host school Seattle at 2 p.m. The Redhawks (8-11, 1-2) will have a matchup against Chicago State today at noon before facing the Lopes tomorrow.