GCU faces NAU, San Francisco


Grand Canyon Lopes (0-6)	vs	Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (1-1)	San Francisco Dons (1-2)
		Thursday, Jan. 30 3 p.m.	Saturday, Feb. 1 11 a.m.
			Live Stats

The Grand Canyon men's tennis team will have a split week with a road match at NAU on Thursday, preceding a Saturday match at home against San Francisco at 11 a.m.

The Lopes are coming off a 0-2 week in which they faced Washington and Cal Poly in Seattle. Despite losing 7-0 to the Huskies, GCU had two chances to grab singles wins with freshman David Weber losing 19-17 in a third-set tiebreaker while freshman Julian Mueller was leading 8-5 in his tiebreaker but lost 8-10. Weber provided the Lopes' only point against Cal Poly winning in straight sets at No. 3.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

WEBER MOVING UP: Weber has been on the rise this season as the team's best singles player to date. After starting the season at No. 4, Weber moved to No. 5 against Arizona State and UC Riverside. Since then, the freshman moved back to No. 4 against Washington and was at No. 3 in the most recent match against Cal Poly. He owns the team's best singles record at 4-1.
TOP DOUBLES SUCCESS: While the Lopes have struggled overall in doubles this season, the No. 1 team has performed well with a 4-0 record. Senior Lorenzo Fucile and freshman Can Franke went 2-0 in the opening weekend while senior Valentin Lang has won a pair of matches with Franke and junior Freddie Grant.
TOUGHEST STRETCH AWAITS: The Lopes' nonconference schedule continues to get tougher when the calendar turns to February. After facing the Dons on Saturday, the Lopes will travel to No. 11 Stanford on Feb. 7 along with facing Pacific in a neutral-site match on Feb. 8. Two weeks later, the team will head to Texas to face No. 5 Baylor and Omaha on Feb. 22 and 23, respectively.

SCOUTING

Northern Arizona started the season with a 1-1 record. Last week, the Lumberjacks lost 6-1 at Arizona and took down UC Riverside 5-2 in a neutral-site match after the Highlanders played at GCU. NAU will face Mesa Community College on Thursday at 9 a.m. before it plays GCU at 3 p.m.

The Lumberjacks are coming off a historic 2019 season in which they finished 22-7 and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time. NAU went 10-0 in Big Sky Conference play during the regular season and won both duals in the conference tournament. The Lumberjacks were ranked first in the Big Sky coaches poll for this season. NAU returns six players, including the 2019 Big Sky Freshman of the Year in Facundo Tumosa, who went 19-8 in singles and 9-1 in conference play.

GCU and NAU have faced each other 36 times with the Lumberjacks holding a 19-17 advantage. Most recently, GCU won 6-1 in 2016 in Phoenix.

San Francisco began this season with two West Coast Conference losses to Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine. The Dons responded with a 4-3 win over UC Davis last week and will travel to Tucson to face Arizona before coming to Phoenix to play the Lopes.

Last season, San Francisco finished 4-15 with a 1-10 road record. After beating Hawaii and Army in consecutive matches, the Dons won one of their remaining 11 matches of the season.

San Francisco only has one senior, Paul Giraud, who was second on the team with seven singles wins last season. The rest of the roster is comprised of four sophomores and one freshman, including sophomore transfer Mitch Johnson, who played at Utah State last season.

GCU won the only previous matchup against San Francisco by a 4-2 score in 2017. The Lopes came back after dropping the doubles point with Fucile and Lang picking up wins. The match was clinched by Mathieu Rajaonah, now the team's graduate assistant, in straight sets at No. 2 singles.

LAST TIME OUT

The Lopes lost 7-0 at Washington and 6-1 against Cal Poly in Seattle.
Weber won at No. 3 in straight sets against Cal Poly.
Lang and Grant won their first doubles match together this season at No. 1.

WHAT'S NEXT

Next week, GCU will face No. 11 Stanford on the road and Pacific in a neutral-site match at Stanford on Feb. 7 and 8.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

SCOUTING

LAST TIME OUT

WHAT'S NEXT

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Can Franke

Lorenzo Fucile

Freddie Grant

Valentin Lang

Julian Mueller

Mathieu Rajaonah

David Weber

Grand Canyon University Athletics