Lopes beat Eagles 6-1

Friday, January 25

Phoenix, Ariz.

10 A.M.

Grand Canyon

Florida Gulf Coast

1/25/2019 1:46:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

GCU wins all but one match in dominant win

By: Jerob Moon

The Grand Canyon men's tennis team began the weekend at home with a 6-1 win over Florida Gulf Coast on Friday morning.

"Great match for the men today," head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "It was very similar to when we played Florida Gulf Coast at their place. We got the 5-2 win, but we had a lot of close matches. It started the same way today right out of the gates."

The Lopes won the doubles point thanks to a pair of 6-4 wins by Lorenzo Fucile and Mathieu Rajaonah at No. 1 and Valentin Lang and Jakub Novak at No. 2. Freddie Grant and Lucas Grego were down early 5-0 at No. 3, but fought back and tied the match at 5-5 right as the Lopes clinched the doubles point and play was stopped.

"It's a team effort, we work hard to make sure the new guys understand how important it is for each court to be staying out there and fighting with a good effort all along," Prudhomme said of his third doubles team. "So even though we didn't get the point at court three, they were a large reason that court one and two could get it done."

With an early 1-0 lead, the Lopes continued to push FGCU by winning all six first sets. Fucile was the first to finish at the top position winning 6-3, 6-1, followed quickly by Rajaonah at No. 2 winning in straight sets.

With the quick jump from 1-0 to 3-0, the Lopes only needed one of the final four matches to clinch the team win. That clinching match came from Grant at No. 6. The sophomore from England won the first set 6-4 and was forced to go to tiebreakers in the second. Grant was down early facing two match points at 6-3, but he regrouped and won the tiebreaker and the match 8-6 and clinched the team win for the Lopes.

Grego finished next at No. 4 winning in three sets, extending his early-season winning streak to three matches. Lang was the final match to finish, outdueling Felipe Escobar in three sets to give the Lopes a 6-1 victory.

"We did get up to good starts at about every court in singles," Prudhomme added. "That's when the other team made us earn it to cross the finish line, and that's what we want. We don't want opponents to go away just because we are up a set. We definitely got a good test, the match could've have easily turned if we didn't get the job done with good mental toughness and stamina."

The team will enjoy a quick break and will be back at the GCU Tennis Facility at 10 a.m. on Sunday against Sacramento State.