Lopes pick up 2nd consecutive sweep

Monday, January 15

Phoenix, Ariz.

12 p.m.

Grand Canyon

UC San Diego

Photo by: Wesley Kurz

1/15/2024 4:40:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

GCU improves to 3-0 with consecutive 7-0 wins

By: Jerob Moon

For the second consecutive day, the Grand Canyon women's tennis team picked up a 7-0 win with a Monday sweep of UC San Diego at GCU Tennis Facility.

The Lopes (3-0) are in the midst of three matches in three straight days at home, defeating UC Davis on Sunday and the Tritons (0-2) on Monday. GCU will face Arizona in a highly anticipated match Tuesday at 3 p.m.

The Lopes kicked off Monday';s match with a crucial doubles point that came down to the final court.

GCU top pair Natasha Puehse and Santa Strombacha won 6-1 quickly at the top court and the Lopes held a 5-4 lead on the other two courts. Those leads turned into a pair of 6-5 deficits, which UCSD turned into a 7-5 win at Court 3. On Court 2, GCU newcomers Lailaa Bashir and Iva Sepa tied the match at 6-6, pushing it into a seven-point tiebreaker. The GCU duo went onto win the tiebreaker 7-3 to put GCU up 1-0 with the doubles point.

The Lopes pushed their advantage into singles and took control of the match with first-set wins on five separate courts. Sophomore Dania Deaifi slotted into the No. 6 position and delivered a 6-1, 6-3 win to extend the lead while Puehse made it a 3-0 GCU lead with a straight-set win at Court 1.

The dual-match win was secured by Sepa, the freshman, at Court 4 with a 6-1, 6-4 win. Strombacha, a senior on Court 2, and Valeriia Krokhotina, a freshman on Court 3, went on to pick up wins.

Lopes freshman Elizaveta Morozova outlasted UCSD's Sophie Pearson in three sets to wrap up the dual match.

GCU and Arizona will meet at GCU Tennis Facility at 3 p.m. Tuesday for the teams' first meeting in Phoenix since 2021.