Completed Event: Women's Tennis at Utah State on March 22, 2026 , Win , 4, to, 1
W Tennis
at Utah State
W 4-1
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Saturday, January 12
Newport, Calif.
5 P.M.
Grand Canyon
vs
Texas A&M
Spring season opens vs. Texas A&M
1/11/2019 2:15:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Lopes meet Aggies for 1st time
The Grand Canyon women's tennis team will kick off the 2018 spring season with a neutral-site matchup against Texas A&M at the Palisades Club in Newport Beach, Calif., on Saturday at 5 p.m. (Phoenix time).
Lopes head coach Greg Prudhomme will begin his 12th season at GCU after a successful 2018 season that saw the Lopes advance to the semifinals of their first WAC Tournament appearance
Texas A&M will be a tough first match for the Lopes as the Aggies went 17-11 last season and extended their streak of NCAA Tournament appearances to 18 in a row. Texas A&M is young with five freshmen and three sophomores, but the Aggies boast the second-best recruiting class in the country, according to the Tennis Recruiting Network. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
The Lopes return six players from last season's squad, including Emilia Occhipinti, who was an All-WAC member in singles and doubles last spring. Coupled with Celia Morel and Mathilde Lirzin, two junior transfers from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, the Lopes will not graduate a player from this season's squad.
Morel and Lirzin garnered national attention at the junior college level over the past two seasons and will look to make an immediate impact this season for the Lopes. In 2018, Morel was the national runner-up in singles while Lirzin advanced to the national semifinals in doubles.
All four juniors (Celina Buhr, Occhipinti, Morel, and Lirzin) will bring leadership to the remaining four sophomores and one redshirt freshman on the roster. Despite the youth of the team, many returners gained experience last season by winning 60 percent of the singles matches and more than 70 percent of the doubles matches.
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Lopes head coach Greg Prudhomme will begin his 12th season at GCU after a successful 2018 season that saw the Lopes advance to the semifinals of their first WAC Tournament appearance
Texas A&M will be a tough first match for the Lopes as the Aggies went 17-11 last season and extended their streak of NCAA Tournament appearances to 18 in a row. Texas A&M is young with five freshmen and three sophomores, but the Aggies boast the second-best recruiting class in the country, according to the Tennis Recruiting Network. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
The Lopes return six players from last season's squad, including Emilia Occhipinti, who was an All-WAC member in singles and doubles last spring. Coupled with Celia Morel and Mathilde Lirzin, two junior transfers from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, the Lopes will not graduate a player from this season's squad.
Morel and Lirzin garnered national attention at the junior college level over the past two seasons and will look to make an immediate impact this season for the Lopes. In 2018, Morel was the national runner-up in singles while Lirzin advanced to the national semifinals in doubles.
All four juniors (Celina Buhr, Occhipinti, Morel, and Lirzin) will bring leadership to the remaining four sophomores and one redshirt freshman on the roster. Despite the youth of the team, many returners gained experience last season by winning 60 percent of the singles matches and more than 70 percent of the doubles matches.
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Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
Women's Wins the WAC Title
Monday, April 21