GCU edges Hawaii 4-3

Saturday, March 16

Honolulu, Hawaii

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Hawaii

3/16/2019 11:28:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

Lopes get 1st-ever win against Rainbow Warriors

By: Jerob Moon

HONLULU —The Grand Canyon men's tennis team won a close 4-3 match at Hawaii on Saturday to kick off its two-match road trip.

The doubles point proved to be the difference once GCU and Hawaii split six singles matches.

"The guys played a great match today," Lopes head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "Hawaii gave us a fight. The match started close right from the beginning and it stayed that way until the end. We were able to get the doubles point on court two and three by one break of serve in each set."

In doubles, the Lopes (9-5) took the 1-0 lead by winning at Nos. 2 and 3. Senior Lucas Grego and sophomore Freddie Grant won 6-4 at the third position and junior Valentin Lang and freshman Jakub Novak won 6-4 at No. 2 for their fifth straight win.

In singles, the Lopes kept the momentum by winning four of the six first sets. But Hawaii (5-8) would bounce back to force a third set on three courts. Novak finished first at No. 6 with a dominant 6-2, 6-3 win, followed quickly by Grego's straight-set win at No. 4 to put the Lopes ahead 3-1.

Fucile clinched the match at No. 1, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 for his second three-set win of the season. Hawaii responded with three-set wins at Nos. 3 and 5.

"In singles, things started close and competitive right from the beginning," Prudhomme said. "We were up on a few courts, down on a few courts. We did end up getting two straight-set wins from Lucas and Jakub. Both of them played great in singles. The highlight was that Lorenzo was able to come back from a set down to close out the match 6-4 in the third set to clinch our fourth point."

The Lopes look to complete the trip on a high note with a matchup against Oral Roberts, which lost 6-1 to Hawaii on Friday.