Air Force Academy
Grand Canyon
Air Force defeats Grand Canyon, 4-3
1/24/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Air Force defeated Grand Canyon, 4-3, Sunday in a non-conference women's tennis match at the Academy. The victory gives Air Force a two-match home sweep over the weekend, as the team beat Seattle, 5-2, on Saturday.
Junior Jocelle Rudico clinched the match for Air Force with a thrilling 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 5 singles over Lana Rinardi. The Falcons also picked up singles wins at No. 2 with Chloe Forlini beating Alexandra Petrzalkova, 6-0, 6-4 and twin sister Lily Forlini coming from behind to defeat Lana Macukat, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5. Elisa Nelson also picked up a win at No. 6 singles over Maria Deleval, 6-2, 6-1.
The victory improves the Falcons to 3-1 this season, including a 3-0 mark at home. Air Force travels to Lincoln, Neb., next weekend for a pair of matches. The Falcons play Eastern Michigan on Saturday at 10 a.m. and Nebraska on Sunday at 9 a.m.
Post-match quotes
Air Force Head Coach Kim Gidley - "This was a really good win for our program today. The fortitude, effort and fight was just great today. After losing a tight doubles point for the second day in a row, the team had to come back and find a way to win four singles matches against a very strong Grand Canyon team. The team lost four first sets and it didn't look very good for a while, but the team just kept fighting and coming back. While we were fighting to get in the matches, Chloe Forlini set the tone in singles with a dominant 6-0 first set and closed the match out in straight sets, along with Elisa Nelson. Lily Forlini was blown away in the first set and came back to win in a hard fought battle in three sets. Freshmen Elizabeth Barnickel went the distance before falling in the third set. Her match was huge in setting the momentum for the match, as it gave time for teammates to come back and clinch their matches. In the end, it came down to our junior, Jocelle Rudico. Once again, she was blown away in the first set and found a way to make it a match before finishing off her opponent in dominating fashion in the third set. We are a pretty young team and it is great to see the team come together and represent the Academy to its highest standards. It is a great start and we will continue to work to improve as the season goes along. This was a really big win for the team."
Air Force Tennis
Grand Canyon University vs Air Force Academy
Jan 24, 2016 at
Live Match Update
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Players Mentioned
