Antelope Spikers Set New Mark For Wins

Saturday, April 13

Antelope Gym

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

16-14, 7-7

Lindenwood

19-12, 5-9

Lindenwood

Grand Canyon

From the left, Jared Goldberg, Jordon Tarantino and Trent Bruns were honored on Senior Night.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

4/13/2013 9:45:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Grand Canyon had to wait two hours, 10 minutes and through five nail-biting sets to capture the program’s new standard for wins in a season.

The Antelopes beat Lindenwood 3-2, on Senior Night at Antelope Gymnasium Saturday, by set scores of 25-21, 23-25, 22-25, 25-23, 15-11 to pick up their 16th win of the season, most in the program’s five-year history. The win also gave the team their best record in four seasons in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, 7-7, and guaranteed the team a .500 or better record -- currently 16-14 -- for the first time.

“It’s a big accomplishment for this team and group of seniors to be a huge part of achieving our first winning season in school history and a .500 MIVA record,” said GCU coach Jeremy Price. “We know as we go forward winning seasons and going .500 in the conference aren’t going to be the goals we set. We’re going to keep aiming higher and higher, but we’ll look back at this as a significant point in the program’s history.”

GCU has earned a No. 5 seed in next weekend’s MIVA quarterfinals and will travel to No. 4 seed Ohio State for a 4 p.m., Arizona Time, match on April 20.

“These past 30 matches have set us up for this moment,” added Price. “Everyone has the same record and same opportunity.”

Saturday’s match had 42 ties and 16 lead changes. There were 11 ties each in sets No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4. The fourth set had the most lead changes (5). The first and second both had four.

The Antelopes scored 11 of their fifth-set points on kills and hit .533 in the final set. Junior outside hitter Ben Ponnet, who became the program’s first 1,000-kill player in Thursday’s win over Lindenwood, had a team-high 22 kills, five in the final set. He hit .333 for the match. It was his second straight 20-plus kill performance. He tied his career high with 23 on Thursday.

Middle hitter Ryan Mather had 11 kills and hit .600 (11-2-15) for the match. He had three kills and no attack errors in the fifth set. He also was part of seven blocks, including one solo. Jordon Tarantino, one of three players honored on Senior Night, added 17 kills and three service aces to go with five digs and four block assists. Senior libero Trent Bruns, the program’s all-time leader in digs, had a team-high seven. Jared Goldberg, a redshirt-sophomore who is graduating in three years, was also recognized prior to the game. He started as the team’s setter and later came in as a serving specialist, keying a four-point run late in the fourth set. He also had nine assists.

Junior setter Keith Smith finished with 41 assists and five block assists. Ponnet added six digs. Christian Ward had six block assists. In the final three sets, junior Ben Hunt had three kills without an error and three digs.

“We started off well and had opportunities to close out the second and third set, but did not do it,” said Price. “I think we played our best volleyball in the fourth and fifth sets.”

GCU 3, LWU 2