Lopes sweep California weekend with pair of road wins

The Grand Canyon women's tennis team headed to California this weekend for a pair of away matches.

The Lopes were able to put together a string of wins, extending their win streak to now three games. They pulled off the win against Long Beach State 4-3 before heading to Fullerton and getting a 5-2 win.

The Lopes started the trip in Long Beach where they would play a battle tested sharks team.

They started off by losing the doubles point on courts 1 and 2 before heading to singles.

In singles play, sophomore Bella Crossman got it started by beating Diana De Simone of Long Beach State 6-0, 6-1.

Sophomore Peyton Duckett also got the job done on court 6 winning in straight sets 6-4, 6-1.

Long Beach State bounced back however, getting the wins on Courts 3 and 4 leaving them only needing one more match to clinch the whole thing.

Sophomore Karina Hofbauer and senior Dania Deaifi had other plans however.

Hofbauer, the Lopes number 1, won her court in three sets (6-4, 2-6, 6-4) leaving it all up to the experienced Deaifi.

Deaifi went on to win 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in order to clinch the Lopes first road win of the season in comeback fashion.

"Proud of our team's performance this weekend to come away with two wins in our first away matches away of the season" said coach Dane Vorster.

"We fought well as a united and hungry team to get the deciding point and win over Long Beach, who was a nationally ranked team last season" Vorster said.

The Lopes continued to ride the momentum going onto the second match the next day against Cal State Fullerton, beating them handily 5-2.

In doubles play Deaifi and Crossman defeated Emilie Lugon-Moulin and Chloe Schwarz of the Titans 6-2

On Court 2, Hofbauer and sophomore Gala Arangio secured the doubles point winning 6-2 as well, this was the first win for the duo on the season.

Over in singles play Hofbauer won the first match on Court 1 (6-2, 6-4). Duckett also took over her court, winning in straight sets 7-5, 6-1.

After losing in the first set 4-6, Crossman went onto win the next two sets 6-1, 6-4 securing the match, and second road win, for the Lopes.

Play would be continued as Arangio would pick up another win from behind to finish off the day for the Lopes (6-4, 6-7, 10-7).

"These wins gives us the confidence we wanted heading into this week's match against SMU in Dallas, another strong opponent on our schedule we are excited for" said Vorster.

The Lopes head to Dallas on February 6th as they take on 4-1 SMU.

Grand Canyon University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Gala Arangio

Bella Crossman

Dania Deaifi

Peyton Duckett

Karina Hofbauer

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