Completed Event: Women's Tennis versus W15 Lincoln on November 3, 2025 ,
W Tennis
vs W15 Lincoln
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, May 3
Los Angeles, Calif.
11 a.m.
Grand Canyon
vs
San Diego
Experience, youth position GCU for breakthrough at NCAAs
5/2/2024 3:34:00 PM | Women's Tennis, Paul Coro
Puehse, Strombacha lead Lopes' 1st-round tourney matchup vs. No. 23 San Diego
Friday, May 3 | 11 a.m. | NCAA tournament | Marks Stadium | Los Angeles, Calif. |
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#56 GRAND CANYON
LOPES (22-2) |
vs. | #23 SAN DIEGO TOREROS (16-7) |
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| WATCH/STATS: USCTrojans.com | ||||
LOS ANGELES – When Grand Canyon and San Diego practiced side by side Thursday at USC's Marks Stadium, it was emblematic of where the Lopes feel they stand entering Friday's NCAA tournament first-round matchup with the Toreros.After losing 4-0 in its 2021 NCAA Division I tournament debut and 2023 return, GCU is ready to show it has risen to the level of an opponent such as No. 23 San Diego in its fifth consecutive NCAA tournament. The Lopes' season results and tournament seeding back that up.
GCU is a four-team NCAA regional's No. 3 seed for the first time and takes a 22-2 record and 13-match winning streak into the 11 a.m. match, which the Los Angeles Regional will stream on USCTrojans.com.
"We believe we can beat anyone, and we have the team to do that," said GCU second-year head coach Katarina Adamovic, who has led back-to-back WAC Tournament champions. "Coming into this match, we know San Diego is strong and one of the best teams in the country, but we match perfectly at each position. If we show up the way we know we can, it's an open game."The Lopes bring an intriguing mix of their top two players, graduate Natasha Puehse of Scottsdale and Santa Strombacha of Germany, being highly accomplished and experienced with youth completing the singles lineup. A national top-30 recruiting class lived up to its billing with the freshman trio of Valeriia Krokhotina, Elizaveta Morozova and Iva Sepa as sophomore Dania Deaifi, from nearby Irvine, improved to be 11-2 at No. 6.
Puehse, who is 18-2 this season, is one of 64 players who qualified for the NCAA singles tournament later this month in Oklahoma and has been the pillar of the program's rise. Strombacha, who is Puehse's doubles partner, is 40-4 the past two seasons at No. 2.
"It's very much different because we have a totally different team and I think we're so much better this year," Strombacha said. "As Iva would say, we're amazing this year. I think we're going in with a pretty strong feeling."The Russian freshmen's momentum of double-digit winning streaks for Krokhtina (11) and Morozova (10) combine with Sepa's in-season development to being a 7-3 player at No. 3.
"Just being around these girls has helped me a lot,' Sepa said. "The player I was last semester and this semester are two completely different players. Mentally, I grew a lot. Plus, we have an unreal coach. My tennis is at a much better level than when I came here."
GCU has not lost since Feb. 25, when it last saw this level of opponent and pushed now-No. 34 Baylor to a 4-3 decision. The Lopes' only other loss came to No. 40 Arizona.
"This is another level of tennis," Sepa said. "The conference and the season we played against amazing teams, we really had a perfect season. We played as a team and have incredible players. It's a privilege playing this tournament. It's a dream to be here."The rapidly developing freshmen trio lost one individual match in the team's undefeated conference season and WAC Tournament run.
"They've proved so much," Adamovic said. "Having them at 3-4-5 has just been awesome to watch them grow throughout this year. The way they play as freshmen with so much confidence in themselves has been awesome."
Adamovic was happy Thursday to see one quality in her team's practice that has been there all season – having fun.
The young Lopes owe that culture to Puehse and Strombacha, who set the on- and off-court standards that Adamovic sought for the program to hit another level. A win on Friday would advance GCU to a 2 p.m. Saturday match against the regional's other match – No. 11 host USC vs. Cal Poly.
The NCAA tournament format mirrors a regular-season dual match. One doubles point is avalable to the team that wins two of three one-set doubles matches first. Six best-of-three-sets singles matches are each worth a point. The first team to tally four points advances.
"We are playing for our seniors," Sepa said. "We all have maybe another chance, but not with this team and this team is something special for me. I want all of them to be here as long as possible."
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