Seniors power Lopes to 6-1 win

Sunday, February 20

Phoenix, Ariz.

11 a.m.

Grand Canyon

UC San Diego

Photo by: Skyler Coblentz

2/20/2022 5:08:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery

Bottom of singles lineup clinches big win

By: Jerob Moon

The Grand Canyon men's tennis team took down UC San Diego 6-1 on Sunday afternoon at the GCU Tennis Facility.

It was a day full of celebration as the team honored the 2021 WAC regular season tournament championships with a pregame ceremony along with celebrating two seniors Freddie Grant and Mariano Argote.

In the lone home match of the season the Lopes took the doubles point and five of the six singles matches.

In doubles GCU (1-9) took the early 1-0 lead over UC San Diego (0-7) with wins at the bottom two courts. At court two Jiri Novak and Grzegorz Rudnicki jumped out to an early 3-1 lead and kept the momentum winning 6-1. Meanwhile at No. 3, Loic Van Zeggelaar and Grant won 6-2 to clinch. Argote and Martim Marujo were up 4-3 when their match was left unfinished.

GCU would use the momentum heading into singles taking all six first sets. The bottom three courts for the Lopes all ended in straight set wins as Marujo, Van Zeggelaar and De Samucewicz helped clinch the dual-match win.

The top three courts were much closer and each went to a 10-point tiebreaker in the third set. Novak picked up his second win of the season at the No. 1 postion with a 6-4, 5-7, 10-8 win over UCSD's Daniel Traxler.

Argote also won at court two 6-4, 3-6, 10-4 and the Tritons were able to get a point on the board with a three-set win over Grant at court three.

The Lopes will be back on the road on Feb. 26 at Northern Arizona.