Lopes advance in MIVA Playoffs, defeat McKendree in four sets

Saturday, April 15

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 PM

Grand Canyon

18-10

McKendree

11-19

McKendree

Grand Canyon

Lopes advance in MIVA Playoffs, defeat McKendree in four sets

4/15/2017 6:01:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Josh Hauser

PHOENIX - The GCU men's volleyball team earned the first home playoff win in school history on Saturday night, defeating the McKendree Bearcats in the first round of the MIVA Playoffs. The third-seeded Lopes won by scores of 25-22, 23-25, 25-21 and 25-19 to move their overall record to 18-10. Sixth seeded McKendree ends their season with an 11-19 mark.

"This was an exciting win tonight for our program," head coach Matt Werle exclaimed. "Each guy on the court seemed to be great at one skill and it paid off. We had a lot of long rallies and junk fall in our favor which helped."

The first set got off on the right foot with a service ace from Michael Milstein. Grand Canyon kept the Bearcats at arm's distance for the entirety of the set, building modest leads as big as five points. After McKendree pulled within two points late in the game and forced a GCU timeout, the Lopes sealed the match with a lightly-tapped, perfectly-placed kill from Drake Silbernagel.

While five service errors for both sides balanced each other out, GCU used four service aces including two from Cody Williams. The Lopes hit .421 for the set.

McKendree got off to a hot start in the second, taking an early 7-4 lead. GCU quickly erased the lead to tie the score at eight, highlighted by a big solo block from Ashton King. Grand Canyon took its first lead when Matthew Kinnebrew and King teamed up for back-to-back blocks, prompting a Bearcats timeout. McKendree made effective use of its timeout, taking small leads of its own out of the break. The Lopes pulled as close as one point late, but McKendree scored its elusive 25th point.

The see-saw affair continued with Grand Canyon taking its turn to get out to a hot start. The Lopes used a pair of quick 3-0 spurts to take leads as big as four points at the mid-way point of the third. Kinnebrew finished off a set win for the Lopes with a kill.

While McKendree ended the third out-hitting the Lopes .350 - .318, Grand Canyon was strong in the serving game. With five more aces in the third, the Lopes tied their season high with 10 on the game. Cullen Mosher had two aces in the set.

In the decisive fourth set, it was all GCU. The Lopes got out to a hot start, forcing the Bearcats into a timeout down 7-2, and never looked back. Kinnebrew tallied five kills during the set and McKendree never got within three points of GCU's lead. When a Bearcat attack sailed out of bounds on the final play, the Lopes cleared the bench to celebrate the first home playoff win of their careers.

Kinnebrew led the GCU offense with 15 kills for the night and Mosher followed with 11 kills. Silbernagel added eight kills and five blocks while King paced the Lopes in blocking with a total of eight. Libero Sky Engleman led GCU with seven digs and setter Milstein racked up 39 assists for the night.

In the next round of the MIVA Playoffs, GCU will face Lewis University on Wednesday, April 19. Lewis is the No. 2 seed in the tournament and the No. 7 team in the national rankings.

"Moving into next week, we will need to execute better as Lewis is a great team," Werle noted. "It will be a hostile environment and the 15 guys traveling will really need to come together. Lewis has knocked us out year after year in the MIVA Tournament and we are hoping to stop that trend. The support from GCU and the Arizona volleyball community is greatly appreciated!"