Lopes face Sun Devils, Highlanders

Thursday, January 16

Tempe, Ariz.

3 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Arizona State

1/15/2020 10:27:00 AM | Men's Tennis

After opening road trip, GCU returns to Phoenix

By: Jerob Moon


Grand Canyon Lopes (0-2)	vs	Arizona State Sun Devils (0-0)	UC Riverside Highlanders (0-0)
		Thursday, Jan. 16 3 p.m.	Saturday, Jan. 18 3 p.m.
		Live Video Live Stats	Live Stats

The Grand Canyon men's tennis team will return to the Valley this week, traveling to Arizona State on Thursday before hosting UC Riverside on Saturday.

The Lopes began the season on the road last week in Utah. GCU lost at Utah State and Weber State with five newcomers in the lineup. Senior Lorenzo Fucile finished 2-0 in singles and in doubles with freshman Can Franke. The pair swept the WAC weekly awards in singles and doubles.

The Arizona State match can be watched live on PAC-12.com.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

NEWCOMERS MAKE IMPACT: Five new players made the starting lineup for GCU during the opening weekend. Franke went 2-0 in doubles with Fucile while German freshmen David Weber and Julian Mueller each won their first career singles matches. Sophomore transfer Maxim Kirsch and freshman Laurent Magne occupied the final two singles positions.
WAC AWARDS SWEEP: The Lopes began the season on a high note individually when senior Lorenzo Fucile won WAC Singles and Doubles Player of the Week honors after a 4-0 combined record over the weekend. The reigning WAC Player of the Year competed at the top singles and doubles positions, winning 6-2 in singles and 6-4 in doubles with Franke. In singles, Fucile won in straight sets against Utah State and prevailed in three sets 6-7, 7-6, 1-0 (10-7) against Kris Van Wyk of Weber State the following day.
BACK IN THE VALLEY OF THE SUN: The road match in Tempe against the Sun Devils and the home match against the Highlanders will be the only times that the Lopes play in the Valley in January. Three straight road matches against Washington, Cal Poly and NAU will wrap up the month before the next home match against San Francisco on Feb. 1.

SCOUTING

Arizona State is coming off a 14-14 season that saw the Sun Devils reach the NCAA tournament and advance to the second round for the first time since 2004. ASU enters this season ranked 25th and welcomes four freshmen to its squad.

Most notably, the Sun Devils return No. 1 singles player Nathan Ponwith, who went 7-9 last season. ASU also returns Makey Rakotomalala, who led the team in singles wins at 12-10 at the Nos. 5 and 6 singles positions. In doubles, the Sun Devils will return Andrea Bolla and Tim Ruehl, a pair that went 12-2 and 6-0 in conference play last season.

GCU and ASU met in Tempe last year for the first time since 1987 with the Sun Devils winning 4-1. Freshman Jakub Novak provided the lone Lopes point, winning 6-4, 7-6 at No. 6.

UC Riverside enters this season after going 20-16 last season. The 20 wins were the most in program history and it was just the second time a Big West team reached the 20-win mark. The Highlanders fell to the No. 4 seed UC Davis in the conference tournament.

UC Riverside lost Kyle McCann, the No. 1 singles player, but returns senior Nabil Abdallah, who tied for the team lead in singles wins with 16 at No. 2. Fellow seniors Gilbert Chung and Max Cohen will lead the team with three freshmen joining the team.

Last season, the Lopes opened with a 7-0 sweep of UC Riverside at the GCU Tennis Facility. The Lopes won at the top two doubles positions, along with winning in straight sets in five of the six singles matches. GCU owns a 7-2 record in the series and has won six straight dating back to 1985.

LAST TIME OUT

The Lopes lost 4-3 at Utah State 4-3 and 5-2 at Weber State.
Senior Lorenzo Fucile went 2-0 in both singles and doubles.
Freshmen David Weber and Julian Mueller picked up their first collegiate singles wins.