ITA Southwest Regionals provides competition

Thursday, October 17

Tempe, Ariz.

Grand Canyon

ITA Regionals

10/22/2024 4:08:00 PM | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis

Women's Arangio, men's Volonski make noise

By: Braden Dohrmann

Over the past weekend, the GCU men's and women's tennis teams competed in the ITA Southwest Regional Championships.

The men's tournament took place in a prime location for the Lopes — Tempe, Arizona. All seven players on the GCU roster qualified for the tournament in different capacities.

On Thursday, qualifying singles rounds took place with Lopes freshman Andreas Loizas winning the first match 6-3, 7-5 over James Krantz of UC San Diego. Later in the day, Loizas fell 6-2, 7-5 to Matthias Uwe Kask of Arizona.

When Friday's main draw play began, GCU junior David Wekesa and sophomore Brice Patoux dropped their round-of-64 singles matches in straight sets.

Lopes sophomore Nikita Volonski won his match in the same round, with a 6-3, 6-4 rout of UC Irvine's Sohrob Amiryavari. Nikita's singles run came to an end Saturday, losing to Carson Lee of UC San Diego in the round of 32. Volonski was unable to finish the match due to injury. He is expected to return to the courts this weekend in Abilene, Texas, for the WAC Fall Tournament.

Two GCU men's doubles teams qualified for the main draw over the weekend. Volonski and Loizas paired up and won 8-3 over Hawaii's Angus Hill and Conner Kurata in the round of 64. The partners dropped their next match on Saturday. Wekesa and Patoux earned a bye in the first round of doubles and followed that up with a Saturday morning victory over Diego Dalisay and Sohta Urano of Hawaii, winning 8-1 in the round of 32. The pairing dropped an 8-6 thriller in the round of 16 to Aadarsh Tripathi Alexander Hoogmartens of UCLA.

Patoux and Wekesa will represent GCU in the WAC Fall Tournament doubles bracket Friday through Sunday.

The Lopes women's team made the trip to San Diego for their ITA Southwest Regional Championships.

Sophomore Gala Arangio was the bright spot for GCU, as she won her first-round match in singles 6-3, 7-6 over San Diego State's Gloria Alogo Piqueras. Arangio fought back, but fell short in the round of 32, losing to UC San Diego's Julia Haynes. After dropping the first set 6-0, Gala took the second set to a tiebreaker but took a 7-6 loss.

Lopes junior Dania Deaifi and freshman Angelina Mihajlovic attempted to qualify for the main draw singles tournament on Thursday, but both lost. Deaifi salvaged her weekend by getting multiple singles wins in extra matches on Friday and Saturday, knocking off Karissa Ghigiarelli of Arizona 7-6, 6-4, and Kaytlin Taylor of Cal State Fullerton 6-2, 7-6.

Both GCU doubles pairs, Arangio/Deaifi and Mihajlovic with senior Valentina Del Marco lost in the round of 64 for doubles.

Arangio and Deaifi will represent GCU in the WAC Fall Tournament in singles and pair up for doubles.

For the men's and women's singles draws, the winners of the WAC Tennis Invitational will punch a ticket to the ITA Conference Master's Tournament in Rome, Georgia, on Nov 7-10.