GCU falls in NCAA 1st round

Friday, May 3

Los Angeles, Calif.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

UCLA

Photo by: Jesica Gonzalez/WAC

5/3/2019 5:01:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

Lopes take pride in program's tournament debut

By: Jerob Moon

LOS ANGELES — The Grand Canyon men's tennis team fell 4-0 to No. 11 UCLA in the first round of the NCAA Championships on Friday.

Despite the loss, GCU head coach Greg Prudhomme and the team took pride in being the first tennis team to break through to the NCAA tournament.

"After this match, it means that the standard has been raised for our program," Prudhomme said. "This certainly is a huge first to win the WAC Tournament and get to nationals. So, after we pat ourselves on the backs for the wonderful firsts and historical year, now the expectation and standard is that we want this to be the first of many."

Starting in doubles, the Bruins (18-5) took the point winning at the bottom two positions. Lorenzo Fucile and Mathieu Rajaonah faced the No. 2 doubles team in the country in Maxime Cressey and Keegan Smith and left the match unfinished whenbthey trailed 5-2. Valentin Lang and Jakub Novak, at No. 2, and Lucas Grego and Freddie Grant, at No. 3, each lost 6-1 to give UCLA the early lead heading into singles.

The Bruins quickly extended their lead with a straight-set win at No. 5. After that loss, the Lopes (19-7) began to fight, starting with Lang, who pushed his first set at No. 3 to a tiebreaker and held a 6-4 advantage. Grego, at No. 4, also bounced back after dropping the first set to lead 4-1 before the match was stopped. Novak's match also was left unfinished at No. 6 with the freshman down 5-2 in the second set.

UCLA also won at the top two singles positions to finish off the Lopes and advance to the second round against Oklahoma State.

"If UCLA is playing well, it is certainly going to be a tough day," Prudhomme said. "Although it made it difficult to get a chance to beat them, I still see it as a form of a compliment and accomplishment for the program. I think part of UCLA's performance today, other than the fact that they are a great team, had to do with how close we played them in February in a 4-2 loss."

The Lopes' historic season will come to an end earlier that the team would hope but looking ahead to 2020 also has many returners excited. GCU will return the WAC Player of the Year in Fucile and WAC Freshman of the Year in Novak, along with the core group of Lang and Grant and even higher expectations set from 2019.

"We don't want to just get here moving forward, but we want to keep building our schedule, recruiting and training in a way that, when we are getting back to the NCAA tournament by winning more WAC titles, that we're having stronger chances and better draws so we can get past the first round and deeper into the draw," Prudhomme said.