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GRAND CANYON SWEEP PLAYERS OF THE WEEK HONORS
Grand Canyon's singles player Valentina Mokrova and doubles team Martina Lo Pumo and Autum Prudhomme have been named the Western Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Players of the Week, respectively, for Jan. 9-15.
Mokrova, a freshman from Aachen, Germany, battled on the court for over two and a half hours to get the final win that Grand Canyon needed for a victory over Southern Utah. Competing in the third flight, she lost the first set 1-6, but bounced back winning the next two 7-6. Against Air Force, she again forced the second set to a tiebreak but was unable to hold on and lost 1-6, 6-7.
Lo Pumo, a freshman from Sicily, Italy, and teammate Prudhomme, a freshman from Glendale, Ariz., joined together to defeat an Air Force duo in the third flight, 6-3. The pair was the only ones to earn a doubles win for the Lopes against Air Force.
Other singles nominees: UT Rio Grande Valley's Lasya Patnaik fought hard as she fell to her Texas A&M opponent 4-6, 6-7 (5) after forcing a tiebreaker in the second set.
Other doubles nominees: UT Rio Grande Valley's Doris Aleksovska and Anastasia Belyaeva were knotted up with their Texas A&M opponents 5-5 when the match went unfinished.
2018 WAC Tournament
The 2018 WAC Men's and Women's Tennis Tournaments will be hosted by Grand Canyon on April 27-29 in Glendale, Ariz. All six teams will compete in the Tournament as the first round will be No. 4 seed against No. 5 seed and No. 3 seed takes on No. 6 seed. No. 1 and No. 2 seeds earn a ticket straight to the semifinals. The winner of the tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as the WAC representative. The reigning tournament champion is Kansas City as they defeated NM State 4-1 in the Championship match last year.
READY TO GO
Grand Canyon is finally done with their four season wait and is now eligible for post season play. Since joining the WAC in 2013, Grand Canyon has consistently shown they can compete while grabbing two regular-season titles (2014-15 and 2016-17) both going 5-0 in WAC play. Along with this eligibility, Grand Canyon was chosen to host this upcoming WAC tournament and is eligible to play in the NCAA tournament.
GRAND CANYON
The GCU women's tennis team kicked off the 2018 season with a hard fought 4-3 win over Southern Utah. GCU started strong in the doubles competition winning the doubles point in two straight matches. Senior Lana Rinaldi and sophomore Emilia Occhipinti won the first double match of the day, 6-2. The duo continued their strong play from the fall season, they won the doubles championship at the UNLV Invite on Nov. 12. Martina Lo Pumo and Kylie Waschuk won the second doubles match in a close contest, 6-4. In singles freshman Lo Pumo had a tough task playing at No. 1 in her first dual match of her college career, but she lost a tough two set match. Sophomores Celina Buhr and Occhipinti each won singles matches in straight sets, giving the Lopes two out of the three singles wins needed for team win. The final singles win came from Valentina Mokrova, who had only one practice with the program because she joined the team in January. Mokrova won the match after losing the first set and came back for a 1-6, 7-6, 7-6 win giving the Lopes their first victory of 2018. There was a lot of first for the team, Lo Pumo had her first ever match at No. 1, Rinaldi played the highest she had ever played in the singles lineup at No. 2, and Autum Prudhomme and Mya Etienne each played in their first collegiate matches.
GCU faced a tough test Saturday against Air Force, the team fought hard but fell to the Falcons 6-1. In singles senior Kylie Waschuk won her first match of the season defeating Carley Hatcliff in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. In other singles matches Emilia Occhipinti battled hard going to three sets but falling 7-6, 3-6, 6-1. Celina Buhr also went the three set limit winning the first set but losing the next two. Valentina Mokorova battled again forcing a tiebreaker in the second set, just as she did yesterday, but ultimately lost 6-3, 7-6. In doubles Autum Prudhomme earned her first doubles win of her career teaming up with fellow freshman Martina Lo Pumo winning their match 6-3. Lo Pumo has a great weekend in doubles winning both matches she competed in over the weekend.
UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) women's tennis fell 0-7 to Texas A&M University in their season opener on Saturday at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. In doubles, Texas A&M (1-0) took courts one and two to take the doubles point grabbing the early lead. UTRGV's (0-1) team of junior Doris Aleksovska and sophomore Anastasia Belyaeva and Texas A&M's duo of Dorthea Faa-Hviding and Riley McQuaid were tied at five before it went unfinished on court three. Texas A&M swept through singles to close out the match.
2017 ITA REGIONALS
The ITA Regional Championships will feature some of the top men's and women's players across the country. Over 8,000 student-athletes from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, Junior and Community Colleges compete across 85 ITA Regional Championships around the country.
Region/Host
Northwest: Stanford
Southwest: San Diego
Mountain: Utah
Texas: TCU
Central: Kansas
Midwest: Michigan
Northeast: Penn
Ohio Valley: Middle Tennessee State
Atlantic: Virginia Tech
Carolina: North Carolina
Southern: Auburn
Southeast: Georgia
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS - The 2018 Tennis National Championships will take place in Winston Salem, N.C at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex. Wake Forest will be the host May 17-28.
May 17-28
Location: Winston Salem, N.C
Host: Wake Forest