PHOENIX — A back-and-forth contest on Monday morning ended with Grand Canyon beating UC San Diego men's tennis 5-2. The Tritons (2-4) won the doubles point and picked up a victory at No. 1 singles from sophomore Carson Lee.

Doubles matches were won by Zach Pellouchoud and Pelayo Rodriguez on court one and David Adamson and Robert Freedman on court three. The match was UC San Diego's third in three days.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Doubles
Grand Canyon struck first with a 6-1 victory at No. 2 doubles. The Tritons then answered back shortly after at No. 3 doubles, where the freshmen duo of Adamson and Freedman were victorious by the same 6-1 margin.

The doubles point came down to the top court. Pellouchoud and Rodriguez were able to pull away for a 6-3 victory that put the Tritons up 1-0 in the dual match.

Singles
The Lopes also got an early advantage in singles with three-straight wins. UC San Diego's Diogo Tinoco lost his first set at No. 2 singles in a tiebreaker before dropping set two as well. Adamson recovered at No. 5 singles after losing his first set 0-6 by winning set two, but he ultimately lost in three sets. Grand Canyon then added a straight-set victory on court three to take a 3-1 lead in the dual match.

Lee's No. 1 singles match wrapped next. He won in straight sets but faced a tight contest throughout, ultimately winning 6-4, 7-6 (4). The win saw the Tritons pull the dual match score to 3-2, leaving courts four and six to decide the outcome.

Both of the final two matches went three sets. Freedman won the first set of his No. 6 singles match in a tiebreaker but lost the next two frames as Grand Canyon clinched the dual match. At No. 4 singles, Pellouchoud entered a third set after each player took a 6-4 victory in the previous sets. His final frame nearly went to a tiebreaker, but Grand Canyon's Matteo Lugari edged ahead late for a 7-5 win.

QUOTABLE
"The guys started off strong in doubles. We were able to get the doubles point and I thought things looked pretty good for us," head coach Timmer Willing said. "We had a lot of close matches and it ultimately came down to the last two matches on the court and third sets. Carson Lee got a pretty good win at number one, but that is all we could really get out of singles. Credit to Grand Canyon, they played pretty well. We are young and a little bit not seasoned, I think later in the year we maybe win that match. We have to get better and it is on us to do that, so time to get back to work when we get home."

TRITON TIDBITS

• The Tritons won the doubles point in two of their three matches in Arizona and have now won the point in four of their last five matches.
• The trip to Arizona is one of only two road trips for UC San Diego outside of California (Hawai'i on April 5).

UP NEXT
The Tritons return to La Jolla for a lengthy homestand. Up first is Villanova on Thursday, Feb. 27. First serve from Northview Tennis Courts is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. PST. Attendance is free, although parking permits are always required on UC San Diego's campus.

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Divisions I and II.