Lopes sweep home opener

Saturday, January 19

Phoenix, Ariz.

10 A.M.

Grand Canyon

UC Riverside

1/19/2019 12:38:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

Men begin season on high note

By: Jerob Moon

The Grand Canyon men's tennis team began the 2019 season with a 7-0 shutout win over UC Riverside on Saturday at the GCU Tennis Facility.

"The guys started off the first match of the season in great fashion," Lopes head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "Everybody played real sharp. UC Riverside pushed us in the doubles so it was great to get the test. Four of the courts in singles jumped out early and kept the momentum all the way through."

The doubles point came down to the No. 1 match with Lorenzo Fucile and Mathieu Rajaonah, the top returning doubles team for GCU. Junior Valentin Lang and freshman Jakub Novak teamed to win 6-2 and Freddie Grant and Lucas Grego lost at No. 3 to set the stage at No. 1. Fucile and Rajaonah led 6-5 but lost the next game to send the match to a tiebreaker. The UC Riverside duo of Kyle McCann and Filip Engstrom led early 3-0, but the Lopes rallied and won 6-3 for an early 1-0 lead in the team match.

In singles, Fucile did not drop a single game at the No. 1 position, winning 6-0, 6-0 in only 43 minutes. Grego and Lang followed suit, winning 6-0, 6-3 and 6-1, 6-4, respectively, to give GCU the fourth point needed for team victory.

The Lopes handled the remaining matches as well. Two seniors, Rajaonah and Justin Cvitanovic, won in straight sets at Nos. 2 and 5. Grant won in three sets after battling back from dropping the first set.

"It was great to see everyone start off on a positive note," Prudhomme said. "We'll have a quick turnaround tonight, and then have a tough match tomorrow at Arizona that we are all looking forward to."

The Lopes will travel to Tucson for a Sunday match against Arizona at 2:30 p.m.