Canyon Loses Five-Setter at St. Francis

Sunday, February 26

Loretto, PA

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

11-7

St. Francis (PA)

8-8

Grand Canyon

Saint Francis

Senior Taylor Griffin had eight kills with no errors in Sunday's match at St. Francis.

2/26/2012 6:53:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Grand Canyon (11-7) was defeated 3-2 by St. Francis (PA) at DeGol Arena in Loretto, Penn. Sunday.

The Antelopes let a 2-1 set lead slip away and lost by set scores of 28-30, 26-24, 21-25, 25-23, 15-10.

GCU got 19 kills from sophomore outside hitter Ben Ponnet. Three other players had double-digit kills. Jake Wekell had 12 with four service aces. Middle hitters Connor Dougherty (11-4-18) and Ryan Mather (10-3-18) each had .389 attack percentages. Senior Taylor Griffin had eight kills without an error (8-0-27) to hit .296. The team hit .227 overall. GCU hit .308, .293 and .360 in the first three sets, respectively, but finished hitting .091 and .000 in the fourth and fifth sets.

"We led in both the second and fourth sets and had chances but didn't take advantage of them," said GCU coach Jeremy Price.

GCU also led 4-2 in the fifth, before the Red Flash scored six straight points to take an 8-4 advantage.

"For the first four sets we played pretty well, but you can't play well 80 percent at this level. You can't do that," added Price.

Libero Trent Bruns returned to the lineup after missing Saturday's match with an eye infection. He led GCU with nine digs. Setter Keith Smith had 45 assists and eigh digs to go with five block assists. Mather also had five block assists. Ponnet had a solo block and three assists. Dougherty added two block assists.

Grand Canyon will have its third road match in three days Monday at George Mason. Action begins at 5 p.m. Arizona time. Links to the live action, provided by the host school, are available at www.GCULopes.com.

SFU 3, GCU 2