Lopes down No. 1 UTA, advance to WAC final

Friday, April 28

Arlington, Texas

7 a.m.

Grand Canyon

UT Arlington

4/28/2023 11:36:00 AM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

No. 4 Lopes advance to 2nd WAC Tournament final with 4-2 win

By: Jerob Moon

ARLINGTON, Texas – The fourth-seeded Grand Canyon women's tennis team took down No. 1 seed and host UT Arlington 4-2 on Friday to advance to Saturday's WAC Tournament championship match against Tarleton.

The Lopes (14-9) avenged a 4-3 regular-season loss to the Mavericks (18-4) at the most important time, taking the doubles point before senior Natasha Puehse clinched the team win at the No. 1 singles position.

GCU advances to its second WAC Tournament championship, going in the first season under head coach Katarina Adamovic after also advancing to the NCAA tournament in 2021.

"This is what we were working for since the fall," Adamovic said. "Our plan was to peak at this time of the year, and this was overall our best performance of the year. We have some amazing athletes on this team and, in order to do amazing things, you have a group of people like this. We do, and I'm so proud of each one of them."

The Lopes jumped ahead early by taking the crucial doubles point with wins at the top two courts. Puehse and her top doubles partner junior Santa Strombacha won easily 6-2 for their 16th win of the season a new GCU D-I program record. Meanwhile at court two graduate Madeline Lamoreaux and freshman Anali Kocevar clinched the 1-0 GCU lead with a tight 6-4 win.

That's two wins in the WAC Tournament for GCU's No. 2 pair and they sit at 12-5 with a five-match winning streak in hand heading to the championship match.

"In college tennis winning the doubles point is huge, it puts a wind at your back and pushes you forward," Adamovic said. "We knew last time we when came here and played them it was a close tough doubles that we lost. We knew how important doubles was going to be today and took the point and from there it was awesome atmosphere overall."

The 1-0 lead was wiped away shortly in singles as the Mavericks answered back with a straight set win at court six. The Lopes would respond with a pair of straight set wins by Strombacha at court two and Kocevar at No. 4 to regain the lead at 3-1.

With the win Strombacha became the first Lope since 2002 to reach the 20-win mark in singles improving to 20-2 on the season at No. 2.

Just three matches remained in singles and UTA cut into the lead with a three-set win over GCU freshman Dania Deaifi at court three. The Mavericks also forced a third set in Lamoreaux's match with a 7-6 win in the second set.

That set the stage for Puehse to clinch the win with GCU leading 3-2. In her match the GCU senior and three-time All-WAC singles honoree came from behind in her first set down 2-4 before winning five of the next six games to win 7-5. Her second set against UTA's Liz Chileno was throughout as Puehse held 4-3 and 5-4 leads before clinching the win with a long 60-second rally to win 6-4.

"Tash is just being Tash," Adamovic said. "She's a baller, the kid is just amazing. When it comes to pressure, when it comes to the big moments you know you can count on her."

The Lopes now advance to the championship match to take on No. 2 seed Tarleton on Saturday at 7 a.m. (Phoenix time).

GCU lost a close 4-3 match on the road against the Texans in the regular season. Tarleton took down No. 6 New Mexico State in the semifinals 4-1 to advance to their first WAC title game in their second season as a D-I program.