Lopes charge back, fall shy in championship

Saturday, April 20

Harlingen, Texas

7 a.m. (MST)

Grand Canyon

UT Arlington

Photo by: David Kadlubowski

4/20/2024 11:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

GCU rallies from early deficit, falls 4-3 to top-seeded UT Arlington

By: Josh Hauser

HARLINGEN, Texas — Grand Canyon had its back to the wall for most of Saturday's 3-hour, 36-minute WAC Tournament championship match, continually thwarting clinch opportunities from top-seeded UT Arlington. The Lopes eventually ran out of steam and fell just shy, dropping a three-set match on Court 4 to fall 4-3 at HEB Tennis Center.

GCU continued its program build under second-year head coach Derek Siddiqui. The Lopes won nine matches for the first time since 2019 and returned to the final round of the WAC Tournament for the third time in program history.

The Lopes finished the year playing their best tennis, turning a 3-11 record into a 9-13 final mark by winning six of their final eight matches.

GCU pushed UT Arlington (12-7) to the brink in both matchups this season, falling 4-3 each time. The Mavericks repeated as WAC Tournament champions but were given a difficult test by the Lopes after cruising to a 4-0 championship win last season.

Following a similar script to Friday's semifinal win against Abilene Christian, the Lopes dropped the doubles point and fell in straight sets on Courts 1 and 6.

GCU again needed to sweep the middle four singles courts to win the match, and the dominoes started falling into place for the Lopes.

Junior Jonathan Da Silva made things look easy for the second straight day, winning 6-0, 6-1 on the fifth court to win the Lopes their first point.

GCU sophomore David Wekesa continued his torrid streak to end the season by winning his 11th consecutive match. The All-WAC honoree won on Court 3 by scores of 7-5, 7-5.

Trailing 3-2, GCU needed wins on Courts 2 and 4 to complete the comeback. That effort got off to an inauspicious start with graduate Gerhard Sullwald and sophomore Alfred Almasi dropping their first sets.

Sullwald and Almasi came fighting back. Sullwald won 6-2 on Court 2 to force a third set, while Almasi won 7-6 in come-from-behind fashion with a 7-4 tiebreaker to also force a third.

Sullwald brought the match to a 3-3 tie with another 6-2 set win to grab the point for the Lopes on the second court.

After his inspiring comeback to force a third set on the fourth court, Almasi ran out of gas and dropped the third set 6-2 to clinch the match for the Mavericks.

Sullwald, Wekesa and Da Silva earned WAC All-Tournament honors.

With the GCU men's tennis program trending upward, the Lopes bid farewell to Sullwald, graduate Pablo Carretero Salvador and senior Wyatt Anderson while looking to continue to build around the core of Wekesa, Da Silva and others for another run in 2024-25.