Lopes head to ITA Southwest Regional

Both Grand Canyon tennis teams will be in action this week at the annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association Southwest Regional at both Pepperdine and San Diego.

Both teams will compete alongside Power 5 and mid major programs in a 128-singles player draw before teaming up in a 64-pair doubles draw.

All eight men will be in action in the singles draw at Pepperdine starting on Thursday. Sophomore Paolo Rosati will face Arizona's Eric Padgham while sophomore Alfred Almasi will face 17th seeded Luka Mrsic from UC Santa Barbara.

In doubles Almasi will team up with graduate Pablo Rosati and take on an Arizona pair in the first round. Last time out at the UCSB Fall Classic the GCU pair won a doubles flight with three straight wins.

For the women they will compete at San Diego with six players competing across singles and doubles. Senior Natasha Puehse will face Sofia Dermenjyan in the opening round with a possible matchup against No. 1 overall seed Janice Tjen from Pepperdine later in the competition in the round of 32. Puehse and Tjen competed against each other in doubles at the NCAA Tournament last spring.

Sophomore Dania Deaifi will look to carry over her strong performance from the SDSU Fall Classic where she won four straight singles matches.

In doubles Puehse and partner Santa Strombacha earned a bye into the second round where they will face either pairs from Arizona or Cal State Fullerton. The No. 1 GCU pair have had a stellar fall up to this point with titles at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic and the SDSU Fall Classic two weeks ago.

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Players Mentioned

Alfred Almasi

Dania Deaifi

Natasha Puehse

Paolo Rosati

Santa Strombacha

Grand Canyon University Athletics