The Grand Canyon men’s tennis split its first road trip of the year, losing a tight dual at Loyola Marymount before bouncing back for a dominant win at Big West defending champion UC Irvine.<\/p>\n
In Friday’s dual at LMU, the Lopes lost 4-3 despite battling back in singles play after losing the doubles point.<\/p>\n
On Courts 1 and 4, GCU sophomores Andreas Loizas<\/a> and Diordan Macababbad<\/a> lost to Max Wuelfing and Kuba Hyrnkiewicz from LMU.<\/p>\n Lopes sophomore Daniel Jankoski<\/a> started the Lopes’ comeback attempt on Court 3 by defeating Cyrus Ahmad 7-5, 6-2.<\/p>\n However, the Lions clinched the match\u00a0on Court 2, where GCU sophomore Tristan Berard<\/a> won the first set 6-3 but lost the next two by 6-3 scores.<\/p>\n The rest of the matches were played out with Lopes junior Charlie Pade<\/a> rallying for a\u00a04-6, 6-2, 6-3 win and junior Brice Patoux<\/a> defeated Alex Padro 7-6, 2-6, 7-5 on Court 5.<\/p>\n GCU then headed over to The Racquet Club of Irvine on Saturday to take on the Anteaters in front of a packed crowd. The Lopes dominated, winning 6-1 in the last leg of the road trip to improve their season record to 6-1.<\/p>\n The Lopes took care of business quickly in the doubles matches with Berard and Loizas\u00a0winning 6-2 and Macababbad and Pade picking up their second win as a duo by a 7-5 score.<\/p>\n Berard started singles play with a Lopes win,\u00a0defeating Tal Goodman 6-2, 6-4.<\/p>\n On Court 6, Pade remained undefeated this season with a\u00a07-5, 3-6, 6-3 win.<\/p>\n Jankoski took another victory on Court 3 to clinch the dual win for the Lopes. He needed a 10-8 tiebreaker to win\u00a0an intense first set winning\u00a0before losing the second set 6-1, setting up the decisive third set that he won 6-3.<\/p>\n The teams played out the rest of the matches on Court 4 and 5, where Macababbad and Patoux secured victories.\u00a0<\/p>\n Macababbad kept his comeback streak alive, winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Patoux defeated Ruining Huang 4-6, 6-2, 7-6.<\/p>\n