Lopes drop pair of close matches

Saturday, February 12

Sacramento, Calif.

11 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Sacramento State

2/12/2022 11:22:00 PM | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Both teams battle in tight 4-3 losses

By: Jerob Moon

Both Grand Canyon tennis teams were in action on Saturday with the women losing 4-3 to Sacramento State and the men also falling 4-3 to Santa Clara in a neutral-site match in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Against the Hornets, the GCU women took the doubles point with strong performances at the top courts. Fabienne Schmidt and Autum Prudhomme won 6-3 at No. 2 while Natasha Puehse and Santa Strombacha won in a 7-6 (7-3) tiebreaker at Court 1. Jana Weiss and Valentina Del Marco lost 6-3 at the bottom court.

Heading into singles, the Lopes (2-1) picked up a pair of straight-set singles wins from Schmidt at No. 2 and Strombacha at No. 3. The GCU German duo are now both 3-0 on the season in singles and Schmidt is the reigning WAC Singles Player of the Week.

Needing one more singles win to clinch the dual-match win, the Lopes were locked in three-set battles on all but one remaining court. Puehse, at No. 1, won her first set but was unable to close it out while Prudhomme, at No. 4, lost her first set 6-1 but rallied with a 6-1 win in the second, before falling in a third-set tiebreaker. Buhr, at Court 6, also lost her first set but responded with a 6-1 second set before dropping the third 6-3.

Despite the loss for the men against Santa Clara, the team can build on a strong performance with their top singles and doubles player, Mariano Argote, not in the lineup on Saturday.

The Lopes (0-8) had to battle back from dropping the doubles point to the Broncos (3-1) with losses at the top two courts. Freddie Grant and Loic Van Zeggelaar lost a close 7-6 (9-7) set at Court 1 while Jiri Novak and Adrien Coulome lost 6-4 at the top court.

Grzegorz Rudnicki and Stanislas De Samucewicz were able to tally a 6-4 doubles win for the Lopes at No. 3.

In singles, the Lopes were competitive, splitting the six matches with Santa Clara. Novak moved up to the No. 1 position and turned in a 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 win while Van Zeggelaar and De Samucewicz picked up straight-set wins at the bottom two courts.

Santa Clara clinched the dual match win with singles wins at Courts 2, 3 and 4, where Coulome batted in a three-set match.

The GCU men will be back in action Sunday at noon (Phoenix time) against host New Mexico.