HARLINGEN, Texas – Tarleton State and Grand Canyon met in the WAC Tournament Championship for the second straight year, and for the second straight year, GCU pulled away with the victory.
The 2-seed Texans (17-4, 6-1 WAC) fell 4-0 against the 1-seed Lopes (22-2, 7-0 WAC) at the HEB Tennis Center in Harlingen on Saturday, as GCU won its second straight WAC Tournament.
Although not as dramatic as last year's WAC Tournament Championship match, it was another very competitive affair this time around, and if it wasn't for "clinch," this may have been a 4-3 result.
GCU started with a crucial doubles point in virtually the closest doubles point possible. If Tarleton would have pulled that off, the Texans very well may have emerged victorious.
Elsa Boisson and
Ximena Morales gave Tarleton a 1-0 advantage in doubles with a 6-2 win on Court 2 over Valentina Del Marco and Valeriia Krokhotina. On Court 3, GCU's Elizaveta Morozova and Iva Sepa came back from a 3-1 deficit to win 6-4 over
Noelia Lorca and
Emma Persson. With the doubles matches tied 1-1, it came down to the top court. GCU's Natasha Puehse and Santa Strombacha led 3-0 against
Maretha Burger and
Martha Makantasi before Tarleton stormed back. The match was tied 6-6, resulting in a back-and-forth tiebreaker, which GCU came away with 7-4 to take a 1-0 team lead.
In singles action, GCU won three with the other three deadlocked.
Krokhotina defeated Morales on Court 5 6-2 6-1 to boost GCU ahead 2-0, then, Sepa defeated Makantasi 7-5 6-1 on Court 3. Strombacha then clinched the WAC Tournament Championship, like last year, on Court 2, this time defeating Boisson 6-4 6-3.
The other three matches went unfinished with Tarleton's Lorca narrowly leading Morozova on Court 4 6-0 1-6 3-2, GCU's Puehse narrowly leading Persson on Court 1 6-1 3-6 1-0, and GCU's Dania Deaifi narrowly leading 6-4 4-5 over
Clara Sobius on Court 6.
After the match concluded, Tarleton State earned two of eight spots on the WAC All-Tournament Team. Lorca and Sobius joined Grand Canyon's Puehse, GCU's Strombacha, GCU's Krokhotina, GCU's Sepa, UT Arlington's Mariana Manyoma-Velasquez and Abilene Christian's Andrea Guerrero on the postseason tournament honors list.
Tarleton State's season has now concluded, the second straight year they've taken silver in the WAC Tournament, and their second straight year logging 17 overall wins. Over the past three seasons, Tarleton has gone 52-15 (.776), 18-3 (.857) in conference matches, earning a WAC regular season title in 2022, a second place finish in both the regular season and WAC Tournament in 2023, and a second place finish in both the regular season and WAC Tournament in 2024.
