Coro: Tennis takes titles together

Grand Canyon tennis head coach Greg Prudhomme went to the GCU Tennis Facility on Friday with more hardware than a handyman.

Prudhomme carried extra equipment for practice in the form of two WAC regular-season championship trophies. For the father of the men's and women's programs, it was not a first to have a champion but an ideal first to have two champions with no bittersweet conclusion of one team's glory and another team's disappointment.

The Lopes teams won separate championships with differing journeys but a path that traveled alongside each other. An experienced men's team living up to being the conference favorite, overcoming a season-ending injury to a top player and gaining retribution for falling short last season. A senior-less women's team made a surprising run, finding in-season improvement and finding motivation from the men's success and encouragement.

"You see the trophies and it's like, 'Those are ours,' " said GCU senior Lucas Grego, who went 19-3 in singles this season. "No matter what happens, they're ours. You cannot take them away from us. It's a great accomplishment but it's also a good reminder that this was regular season. The real tournament is coming. Nationals was the ultimate goal for this year. We're not done. We have the trophy and that's nice, but we're not satisfied with that."

The men's and women's teams take their titles to Brownsville, Texas, this week, where their championships have earned them byes to the WAC Tournament semifinals with NCAA tournament bids on the line for the men's and women's winners.

It is the expected end result for a men's team that thought it was championship-bound last season until it was derailed by illness and injury. It was a dramatic in-season turnaround for a women's team that relied on the three lineup freshmen from last season, GCU's first women's team with a losing record in 12 years, to raise their games this season.

The women started 2-1 but then lost six dual matches in a row before winning seven in a row.

"We thought, 'Oh my goodness, this has got last year written all over it,' " Prudhomme said. "We got our heads down in the process and forgot about the win-loss record. I'm really proud of the coaching staff and players. It was kind of a bigger accomplishment than the years we dominated the conference.

"We just rolled up our sleeves a little more and got into the nuts and bolts of each player's game to make the smallest improvements here and there. For them to be playing their best tennis at the most important time when conference started, that's what you want as a coach."

It was not just that the team's top player, junior Emilia Occhipinti, led the team in singles and doubles play. It was performances like the one of sophomore Ludovica Infantino, a No. 5 player who lost her first eight matches but went 4-1 in WAC play. Martina Lo Pumo went 4-8 during nonconference and 4-1 in WAC at No. 4.

"This team is amazing," Lo Pumo said. "We're all positive so we don't feel pressure from teammates, only support. That really helps.

"I like how the team is. This year, I feel more in the concept of team. I really feel like my wins are also because of my team."

The men's team was loaded but lost senior Justin Cvitanovic to a season-ending knee injury in the second match of the season. His teammates stepped up a rung, often evoking his name for motivation, and compiled a cumulative 85-34 singles record with a freshman, Jakub Novak, stepping into the lineup and going 13-4. He takes an 11-match winning streak into the WAC Tournament. Junior Valentin Lang has won seven in a row at No. 3 and sophomore Freddie Grant has won eight in a row at No. 5 while the top two players, junior Lorenzo Fucile and senior Mathieu Rajaonah, continue to star in singles and doubles.

"The matches weren't as easy as dominating scores," Prudhomme said. "Because of the mental strength and experience, we were winning most of the close matches. We got retribution for the first part (regular season). Now going into the tournament, we're looking to do the same."

The women's team, historically the stronger GCU program, was the first to clinch the regular-season title by using the same formula as the men – weekly improvement and mental toughness.

"The whole team is one," Grego said of teams almost entirely composed of international players. "We complete each other's strengths and learn from each other's weaknesses."

Prudhomme is just as proud to see the life lessons learned as they win. His teams display better body language, improved self-talk and a co-ed spirit and chemistry with confidence becoming contagious.

"We're really proud of what we did, which means we're not going to be disappointed anyway, but we're going there to do more," Lo Pumo said. "We're not settling."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Grand Canyon University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Justin Cvitanovic

Lorenzo Fucile

Freddie Grant

Lucas Grego

Ludovica Infantino

Valentin Lang

Martina Lo Pumo

Jakub Novak

Emilia Occhipinti

Mathieu Rajaonah

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