Wildcats hand Lopes 1st loss

Tuesday, January 16

Phoenix, Ariz.

3 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Arizona

Photo by: Wesley Kurz

1/16/2024 5:53:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

GCU fall at home after close doubles point battle

By: Jerob Moon

The Grand Canyon women's tennis team suffered its first defeat of the season with a 4-0 loss on Tuesday at GCU Tennis Facility.

The doubles action was close throughout with Arizona taking the 1-0 lead when it won on the final court. The reigning WAC Doubles Players of the Week, GCU's Natasha Puehse and Santa Strombacha, finished first on Court 1 with a 6-2 triumph for third straight win. Arizona countered with a 6-3 win at court three to set up the showdown at No. 2.

GCU's Lailaa Bashir and Iva Sepa held a 5-4 lead at the middle court but were unable to put the match away. Arizona's Belen Nevenhoven and Midori Castillo-Meza won the next three games for a 7-5 set that clinched the doubles point and a 1-0 Wildcats lead.

Arizona pushed its 1-0 advantage in singles, winning the first set on five courts. The Wildcats converted those first sets into a trio of straight-set wins to clinch the match. GCU freshman Elizaveta Morozova lost 6-3, 6-1 and Bashir, a junior, battled in a 6-3, 6-4 loss. The match was clinched with a 6-3, 7-5 win by Arizona at Court 5 over Sepa, a freshman.

On the top courts, the Lopes battled despite unfinished matches. Puehse won her first set 6-2 and was leading a second-set tiebreaker 5-4 when the match was clinched. Valeriia Krokhotina, a GCU freshman who moved up in the lineup to Court 3, lost a close first-set tiebreaker and was tied at 5-5 in her second set when it was abandoned. Strombacha, at Court2, had begun to battle back in her second set, cutting the deficit to 4-3.

The Lopes will continue the homestand on Sunday against Fresno State at 2 p.m.