Completed Event: Women's Tennis versus W15 Lincoln on November 3, 2025 ,
W Tennis
vs W15 Lincoln
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Monday, March 4
Phoenix, Ariz.
11 A.M.
Grand Canyon
4
vs
3
Portland
Lopes win 4th match at home
3/4/2019 3:17:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Occhipinti clinches win in tiebreaker
The Grand Canyon women's tennis team won another close match at home on Monday, defeating Portland 4-3 when junior Emilia Occhipinti clinched the match in a tiebreaker in the last singles match.
"I can't say enough about the girls today, this is one of the best wins of the season," GCU head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "We've had some real close fights but this was up there with the closest ones."
For the second straight match, the Lopes (4-7) clinched the doubles point. Occhipinti and Celina Buhr won 6-2 at No. 1 and Celia Morel and Autum Prudhomme blanked their opponent 6-0 at No. 3 to give GCU an early 1-0 lead. Martina Lo Pumo's and Mathilde Lirzin's match was stopped with the pair trailing 5-2.
"It's nice that we've had a big improvement over the last few matches with the doubles, especially at No. 3 raising their level," Prudhomme said.
It was a back-and-forth contest in singles with each team alternating wins. Portland (6-4) won in straight sets at No. 5 after taking four of the first six sets, but Lo Pumo and Morel answered with straight-set wins at Nos. 4 and 2 to give the Lopes a 3-1 lead.
Portland would not back down, taking the next two matches at Nos. 2 and 6 in straight sets to knot the score at 3-3 with one match to play.
At No. 1, Occhipinti dropped the first set 6-2 but bounced back and won 6-2 in the second set. She was down 4-1 in the third set but came back and forced a tiebreaker, when she won 7-5 and clinched the team win.
"We were looking good with a 3-1 lead but we were in trouble and down in the remaining matches," Prudhome said. "So for Emilia to come back after losing the first set to push it to a third, then she was down 4-1 in the third and pushed to tiebreaker. Then in the tiebreaker, she was down 1-4 and 2-5 so the other team was two points from the match. So Emilia has a triple comeback in just her singles match alone and was able to win.
"Even through the losses we've had, we have developed a good habit of fighting until the last point and being mentally tough and keeping the attitude up. So that's why we've got a couple wins in a row."
The Lopes will hit the road this weekend for matches at Santa Clara and San Jose State on Saturday and Sunday.
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"I can't say enough about the girls today, this is one of the best wins of the season," GCU head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "We've had some real close fights but this was up there with the closest ones."
For the second straight match, the Lopes (4-7) clinched the doubles point. Occhipinti and Celina Buhr won 6-2 at No. 1 and Celia Morel and Autum Prudhomme blanked their opponent 6-0 at No. 3 to give GCU an early 1-0 lead. Martina Lo Pumo's and Mathilde Lirzin's match was stopped with the pair trailing 5-2.
"It's nice that we've had a big improvement over the last few matches with the doubles, especially at No. 3 raising their level," Prudhomme said.
It was a back-and-forth contest in singles with each team alternating wins. Portland (6-4) won in straight sets at No. 5 after taking four of the first six sets, but Lo Pumo and Morel answered with straight-set wins at Nos. 4 and 2 to give the Lopes a 3-1 lead.
Portland would not back down, taking the next two matches at Nos. 2 and 6 in straight sets to knot the score at 3-3 with one match to play.
At No. 1, Occhipinti dropped the first set 6-2 but bounced back and won 6-2 in the second set. She was down 4-1 in the third set but came back and forced a tiebreaker, when she won 7-5 and clinched the team win.
"We were looking good with a 3-1 lead but we were in trouble and down in the remaining matches," Prudhome said. "So for Emilia to come back after losing the first set to push it to a third, then she was down 4-1 in the third and pushed to tiebreaker. Then in the tiebreaker, she was down 1-4 and 2-5 so the other team was two points from the match. So Emilia has a triple comeback in just her singles match alone and was able to win.
"Even through the losses we've had, we have developed a good habit of fighting until the last point and being mentally tough and keeping the attitude up. So that's why we've got a couple wins in a row."
The Lopes will hit the road this weekend for matches at Santa Clara and San Jose State on Saturday and Sunday.
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Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,3
#1 Singles Match
123
Jelena Lukic / 0 [PORT]
626
267
#2 Singles Match
12
Raphaelle Leblanc / 0 [PORT]
16
67
#3 Singles Match
12
Emily Soares / 0 [PORT]
76
51
#4 Singles Match
12
Marija Elenova / 0 [PORT]
43
66
#5 Singles Match
12
Lourdes Ramalle / 0 [PORT]
66
12
#6 Singles Match
12
Angela Schuster / 0 [PORT]
77
45
Order of Finish:
5,4,2,3,6,1
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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