Doubles shines at ITA Southwest Regional

Thursday, October 19

San Diego, Calif.

Grand Canyon

ITA Southwest Regional

Photo by: Jayden Todd

10/24/2023 2:22:00 PM | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis

ITA Southwest Regional Men ITA Southwest Regional Women

GCU men, women make deep runs at regional fall event

By: Jerob Moon

Both Grand Canyon tennis teams had strong showings at the ITA Southwest Regional over the weekend in Southern California.

For the women, No. 1 GCU doubles pair Natasha Puehse and Santa Strombacha put on a show advancing to the quarterfinals of the main draw while the team picked up four singles wins in San Diego.

Doubles was a strong point for the men at Pepperdine as sophomores David Wekesa and William Alsterback advanced to the round of 16 with a pair of wins while three Lopes had wins in singles.

In singles for the women, four Lopes picked up wins in the opening round of the 128-player draw. Puehse, Strombacha and freshman Iva Sepa all had straight-set wins over opponents from CSUN, Long Beach State and UC San Diego. Newcomer Valeriia Krokhotina won her first set and dropped the second in a tiebreaker against Cal State Fullerton's Kaytlin Taylor but came back to win 7-5 in the third set.

Strombacha was the only Lope to win in the second round, defeating UC Santa Barbara's Camille Kiss 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. In the round of 32, Strombacha faced the San Diego's Claudia De Las Heras, the No. 7 seed, and lost in straight sets.

In doubles, Strombacha and Puehse started strong with an8-4 second-round win over Arizona's Kayla Wilkins and Reece Carter after receiving a first-round bye. In the round of 16 the GCU duo defeated a pair from San Diego State 8-5 to move onto the quarterfinal, where they had an NCAA tournament rematch with the No. 1 seed Janice Tjen and Savannah Broadus from Pepperdine. Puehse and Strombacha put up a good fight but lost 8-4.

For the men, a trio of Lopes picked up a singles win in the first round. Junior Jonathan Da Silva and graduate Gerhard Sullwald had straight-set wins over opponents from Hawaii while sophomore Paolo Rosati had a 6-2, 6-3 win over San Diego State. Those three Lopes fell in the second round to tough opponents from USC, Arizona and Pepperdine.

In doubles, Alsterback and Wekesa advanced to the round of 16 with a pair of wins. In the opening round, the GCU pair won 8-1 over a pair from UC San Diego before defeating Hawaii's Angus Hill and Cole Kurata 8-0. In the round of 16, Alsterback and Wekesa face the No. 7 seed Jay Friend and Colton Smith of Arizona and lost 8-4.

In all, the Lopes won a combined 13 singles matches and six doubles matches against some of the best players and programs across the Southwest.