Infantino plays clutch for team win

Sunday, March 24

Phoenix, Ariz.

1 P.M.

Grand Canyon

New Mexico State

3/24/2019 5:33:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

Lopes win 6th straight, remain perfect in WAC play

By: Jerob Moon

Sophomore Ludovica Infantino was the hero for the Grand Canyon women's tennis team Sunday, clinching a 4-3 win over New Mexico State with her singles win at the GCU Tennis Facility.

With the match tied at 3-3, Infantino forced a third-set tiebreaker after a back-and-forth final set. Infantino and NMSU's Yadira Rubio were tied 5-5 in the tiebreaker before the sophomore from Noto, Italy, won the final two points to take the win.

"It was a perfect weekend for the girls in our first WAC cluster," GCU head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "It was a great way to finish their 11th home match and to stay undefeated in the WAC up to this point. The girls really showed their mental toughness and it was a great team effort."

The match was tightly contested from the very beginning with the Lopes narrowly taking the doubles point. After the Lopes (8-7, 3-0 WAC) and Aggies (8-6, 2-1 WAC) split at Nos. 3 and 2, the doubles point came down to Emilia Occhipinti and Celina Buhr at the top position. Their match was close throughout and the Lopes trailed 5-4 but rallied to win the final three games to take the 1-0 team lead.

In singles, the Aggies responded by taking four of the six first sets and regained the lead with two straight-set wins at Nos. 1 and 6. The Lopes responded with a 6-2, 6-3 win by Morel at No. 2, her sixth win in a row, to tie the match at 2-2.

The match continued to go back and forth into the later stages with New Mexico State winning at No. 3 for a 3-2 lead. But the Lopes would not quit and Martina Lo Pumo's straight-set win at No. 4 tied the match at 3-3 with Infantino beginning her third set at No. 5.

Infantino rallied after dropping the first set 6-4 to win the second set 6-4. In the third, Infantino and Rubio broke serve and held serve through the first four games to stay even. Rubio took a 6-5 lead but Infantino kept her serve and won the 12th game to force a winner-take-all tiebreaker.

The tiebreaker was tied at 3-3 before Infantino took a 5-3 lead. That lead would vanish as Rubio won two straight points. Infantino never wavered and won the final two points to win 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) and put GCU in first place in the WAC standings.

The win capped off a perfect 4-0 week-long homestand and the Lopes ended the home season with an 8-3 record.

The Lopes will enjoy that 3-0 WAC record for a week before traveling to Chicago State to end the regular season against the Cougars and UT Rio Grande Valley on April 5 and 6.