GCU Gives MSU Billings First Loss Of Season

Thursday, September 8

Phoenix, AZ

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Montana State Billings

Janae Giles

9/8/2011 9:19:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Antelopes Win Second Straight 3-0 Match

By: Steve Heath

Box Score

Grand Canyon University opened the 2011 Holiday Inn Grand Canyon University Invitational by giving Montana State Billings its first loss of the season.

GCU (2-2) beat MSU Billings (4-1) 3-0 by set scores of 25-22, 25-20, 25-22 at Antelope Gymnasium Thursday.

It marked the second consecutive 3-0 win for Grand Canyon, which finished off its trip at the Nanook Classic with a shutout victory against host Alaska Fairbanks.

Thursday’s match was the first of four in three days. GCU will take on Colorado Christian (2-3) at 1 p.m. and Western New Mexico (2-2) at 7 p.m. Friday and open the Pacific West Conference portion of its schedule with a 4:30 p.m. contest against Hawai’i Pacific (2-4) Saturday.

All matches are at Antelope Gymnasium and free of charge. Fans unable to attend can keep up with the ’Lopes with live stats and live video. Links to both are on the GCULopes.com volleyball schedule page. Fans of all teams in the invitational can follow their favorites on the live stats link.

“This was a great confidence booster coming off last weekend,” said GCU coach Kris Naber, whose team went 1-2 in Fairbanks. “The thing I liked most was how we executed and did the things well that we didn’t do well last week.”

In losses to No. 16 Minnesota State and Dallas Baptist – in a heart-breaking five-setter – GCU was unable to put sets away late.

That wasn’t the case Thursday.

Down 22-21 in the first, a Janae Giles kill started a four-point run to a win. Tied 17-17 in the second, GCU scored eight of the final 11 points, wrapping up the set with a block from Brooke Blomenkamp and Shelby Taylor. In the third, GCU saw a six-point advantage slip to two late, but scored two of the final three points to notch a victory in the home opener.

Blomenkamp and Giles each had a team-best eight kills. Giles hit .350. In the last two wins, she has 19 kills and only four errors on 50 attempts for a .300 average.

Senior middle hitter Stephanie McBride had seven kills, a .429 attack percentage and three service aces. She has 18 kills and only one error in the last two matches and a .500 attack percentage.

Setter Kristen Preach had 19 assists and libero Mackenzie Phelps had 18 digs. Taylor led in blocks with four, including one solo.

The invitational resumes Friday with six matches beginning with a 9 a.m. contest between Colorado Christian and Hawai’i Pacific.