Finerty Shines Again for UNC men's tennis, but Bears fall to Grand Canyon 6-1

Saturday, January 28

Greeley, Colo.

2:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Grand Canyon

1/28/2017 5:46:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Charlie Snelson, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo- The Bears were excited to get their first home match underway, but Grand Canyon University played well and took down the home squad 6-1 in the first ever meeting between the two schools in tennis. A bright spot for UNC was junior Connor Finerty, who willed himself to a three set victory over GCU's Mathieu Rajaonah at No. 2 singles, coming from behind in an effort that took over two and a half hours.

Scores-
Doubles
1. GCU (Kuehnen, Legarreta) def. UNC (Cramer, Vakouftsis) 7-5
2. UNC (Pease, King) def. GCU (Musitelli,Rajaonah) 7-5
3. GCU (Fucile, Lang) def. UNC (Finerty, Lombardi) 6-2

Singles
1- GCU (Francois Musitelli) def. UNC (Kyle Pease) 7-5, 6-2
2- UNC (Connor Finerty) def. GCU (Mathieu Rajaonah) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3
3- GCU (Adrian Legarreta) def. UNC (Alex Vakouftsis) 6-3, 6-4
4- GCU (Lorenzo Fucile) def. UNC (Hayden Cramer) 6-3, 6-2
5- GCU (Justin Cvitanovic) def. UNC (Augstin Lombardi) 6-3, 6-3
6- GCU (Valentin Lang) def. UNC (Cassell King) 6-2, 7-5

Time of the match: 3 hours, 35 minutes

Doubles Breakdown:

1. At No. 1 doubles, Cramer held his serve to start the match and they stayed on serve through 2-2. GCU capitalized on break point to take the lead 3-2. Later, Cramer lost an 8-ball volley battle at the net setting up match point. GCU won the point (40-30) for the victory 7-5. Time of the match: 36 minutes, second doubles match to finish.

2. Kyle Pease and Cassell King held serve to start the match and continued to stay a game in front of GCU until at 6-5, they strung a few strong points together to break Mathieu Rajaonah's serve finishing with a Kyle Pease forehand volley. The final score was 7-5, UNC. The win was unfortunately inconsequential because second doubles was the last to finish and UNC already lost two doubles matches. Time of the match: 30 minutes.

3. Lorenzo Fucile and Valentin Lang got a break on Connor Finerty's serve and held to go up 3-1. Then an ill-advised swinging volley drifted long and gave GCU a 4-1 lead. Subsequently, Finerty and Lombardi failed to get closer than 5-2 and lost the match 6-2. Time of the match: 23 minutes, first doubles match to finish.

Singles Breakdown:

1. No. 1 singles featured a match in which both players traded ground strokes from the baseline for a majority of their points. Francois Musitelli was beginning to find success stretching Kyle Pease wide to the forehand, but the first break of serve came for Pease. Then Pease was unable to serve out the set leading 5-3, and Musitelli became the more patient player, eventually willing himself to four straight games and the first set 7-5. Strong play and few unforced errors from Musitelli continued to keep pressure on Pease and he lost serve in the second set, losing the match 7-5, 6-4. Time of the match: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

2. Connor Finerty held his first two service games, but was struggled early to deal with Mathieu Rajoanah's heavy topspin forehand, which often put Finerty in a tough position far behind the baseline to hit ground strokes. Finerty dropped the first set 6-2. In the second, Finerty played aggressive but controlled tennis and finally earned a break chance at 5-4 when Rajoanah double-faulted to bring the score to (30-40). On the next point, Finerty got the break and the set when Rajoanah netted the ball trying to hit a low backhand slice. Finerty earned a pair of break points up 4-3, (15-40) in the third set and capitalized. He used his momentum and positive energy from that game to serve out the set and match 6-3. Time of the match: 2 hours, 51 minutes.

3. Alex Vakouftsis lost his serve early in the first set and had to play catch up serving down 4-1. The second set saw more of the same for Vakouftsis and he ended up losing the match 6-3, 6-4. Time of the match: 1 hour, 12 minutes.

4. Hayden Cramer served down 4-3 unsuccessfully and lost the first set 6-3. It was much of the same in the second set which ended 6-2. First singles match to finish. Time of the match: 52 minutes.

5. Augstin Lombardi seemed to enjoy trading forehands in a majority of points throughout the first set with his opponent Valentin Lang. After losing the first set 6-3, he then dropped a slightly more competitive second set by the same score.

6. Cassell King dropped the first set 6-2 after trailing 4-1. King improved his play in the second set but lost the match 6-2, 7-5.

Notes: Senior Alex Clarihew dropped his exhibition match to GCU's Gregoire Balenci. The Bears continue their spring season tomorrow at Work Out West in Greeley, CO where they will play against Big Sky Conference opponent Montana State at 10:00am.