Lopes win WAC Tournament

Sunday, April 28

Brownsville, Texas

11 a.m.

Grand Canyon

New Mexico State

4/28/2019 4:04:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

GCU claims automatic NCAA tournament bid

By: Jerob Moon

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The Grand Canyon men's tennis team accomplished a season-long goal Sunday when it claimed a WAC Tournament championship and NCAA tournament bid in the sweltering heat and humidity of South Texas.

GCU defeated New Mexico State 4-3 in a back-and-forth title match that lasted nearly three and a half hours before the Lopes punched the program's first NCAA Division I tournament ticket when senior Mathieu Rajaonah won GCU's final point and was mobbed by his teammates.
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"I can't say enough about the guys effort today," Lopes head coach Greg Prudhomme said. "The guys kept fighting all day and, to be able to get across the finish line against a team that's won it multiple times before, says a lot about our team. I'm really proud of the coaching staff. Amit Maharaj and Jaan Kononov have worked really hard."

GCU's first match in the 64-team tournament will be announced Monday at 3 p.m. (Phoenix time) on ncaa.com.

It was the third meeting this season between GCU (18-9) and New Mexico State and the Lopes learned how hard it can be to beat a team three times in a single season. The previous two matches went easily in the Lopes' favor (4-0 in an early March tournament and 6-1 in WAC play earlier this month). But on Sunday, GCU was tested in singles and doubles to take the dual the distance.

The Aggies took a 1-0 lead by winning the doubles point with Rajaonah and junior Lorenzo Fucile losing 6-2 at No. 1 and senior Lucas Grego and sophomore Freddie Grant fallling 6-3 at No. 3.

In singles, the team split the first four matches to keep New Mexico State ahead 3-2. Lang won in straight sets after taking the first set in a tiebreaker while Grego fell in three sets at No. 4. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the lineup, Novak showed why he won WAC Freshman of the Year Novak by claiming a 7-6, 6-4 victory at No. 6 while Grant fell in straight sets at No. 5.

The Lopes needed to win the final two matches to sweep the WAC regular-season and tournament titles.

It started with Fucile's 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win at No. 1 to even the score at 3-3, setting the stage for Rajaonah at No. 2. The captain and senior from France lost the first set 7-5 but regrouped and took the second set 7-6 after a 7-4 tiebreaker. In the final set, Rajaonah dominated 6-1 and was stormed by his teammates for a celebratory dogpile when New Mexico State's Louis Menard's rally hit the net.

"All the mental training that we've done all year, the off-court training, the tactical training, we needed every ounce today against a great team in New Mexico State," Prudhomme said. "So I'm really proud of the guys and we are looking forward to representing the WAC in the NCAA tournament."