Antelopes Fall To No. 10 CSU Northridge

Friday, January 18

Northridge, CA

8 p.m.

Grand Canyon

2-3

Cal State Northridge

3-1

Grand Canyon

Cal State Northridge

1/18/2013 10:15:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Freshmen Play Well in Three-Set Loss

Grand Canyon dropped to 2-3 with a 3-0 loss to No. 10 Cal State Northridge at

The Matadome Friday.

All three losses have come to nationally-ranked programs (No. 3 Stanford, No. 14 George Mason). GCU lost by set scores of 25-23, 25-18, 25-20.

GCU led in the first set by five and as late as 17-12. It led 19-15 and tried to hang on at 23-22 when the Matadors rallied to take the opener. The Antelopes got solid production from their middle blockers in the set. Sophomore Ryan Mather had six kills on eight swings, while frosh Christian Ward had three kills and one error on five tries. He also had three block assists.

“It was a reprise of the Stanford match,” said GCU coach Jeremy Price. “We came out with a lot of energy, blocked a lot of balls, and were efficient. Give credit to them for winning the end game.”

Ward finished with six kills on nine tries (6-1-9, .556) to go with four block assists. Frosh Gerrard Lipscombe led in kills with nine. He hit .278 (9-4-18) and had a pair of block assists.

“Our two freshmen really did a nice job,” added Price.

Mather and Jordon Tarantino each had seven kills. Ben Ponnet had six kills, three block assists and two service aces. Libero Trent Bruns had a match-best eight digs. Setter Keith Smith had 32 assists, a solo block and one block assist.

GCU hit .191 for the match to the Matadors .350. The Antelopes were also hurt in the first two sets by service errors. They had eight in the first and 12 over the first two games. CSUN had six in the first two sets.

“They’re a Top 10 team for a reason,” added Price. “They do a lot of things right all the time. We did a lot of things right, some of the time.”

After playing its first five matches on the road, GCU plays at Antelope Gymnasium for the first time Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. against Hope International. The teams meet again Jan. 26 at 1 p.m.

CSUN 3, GCU 0