Antelopes Pick Up Fourth Straight With 3-0 Win Over ULM

Thursday, September 19

Antelope Gymnasium

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

6-5

Louisiana Monroe

3-10

Louisiana-Monroe

Grand Canyon

Freshman Hannah Hankins, 20, had six kills and five blocks in Thursday's 3-0 win over Louisiana-Monroe.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

Antelopes Pick Up Fourth Straight With 3-0 Win Over ULM

9/19/2013 10:00:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Grand Canyon extended its winning streak to four, and grabbed its sixth win in the last seven, with a 3-0 victory over Louisiana-Monroe at Antelope Gymnasium Thursday.

In their first home match against a Division-I opponent, the Antelopes won impressively by set scores of 25-20, 25-22, 25-7. GCU improved to 6-5. ULM dropped to 3-10.

"I think our serving game got them out of system and we did a good job of controlling the ball on our side," said GCU senior setter Jessica Posse, who had 21 assists and a service ace.

The Antelopes had seven service aces and held the Warkhawks to just a .027 hitting percentage. GCU hit .243 and had its most successful set in the third, hitting .489 with 15 kills and just one error on 29 attempts.

The Antelopes won the first set, but lost leading hitter Shannon Dugan on the final play. Dugan left with an injury after having three kills and seven digs.

"We knew going into Division I we'd face adversity as individuals and as a team," said GCU coach Kris Naber. "In a positive way, that's how we gear our practices. You know you have to find a way to overcome it. We put ourselves in situation and we have to battle our way out. We had to do that tonight when Shannon Dugan went down."

Hayleigh Friemoth replaced Dugan and finished with five kills and four digs in the last two sets.

GCU got another strong performance from the middle. For the second straight night, senior middle blocker Lanie Muys tied her career-high in kills, with 11. She hit .625 with only one error in 16 attempts. Frosh middle blocker Hannah Hankins had five blocks, including two solos to go with six kills and just one error in 14 tries (.357).

"We did a good job of getting our middles involved," added Naber. "Lanie and Hannah did a great job in being options and finding ways to get kills."

Kaitlynn Ausmus finished with nine kills, while, off the bench, Megan Davis had a solid night with four kills without an error on 10 attempts to go with 15 digs. Junior libero Mackenzie Phelps had a match-best 17 digs.

"Overall, we put pressure on them, consistently, and that caused them to make errors," said Naber.

GCU will play its Western Athletic Conference opener, at home, Thursday, Sept. 26 at GCU Arena against Kansas City.
"Our crowd support was great, again, tonight. It has really been a big factor in giving our team energy. We can't thank them enough and look forward to seeing more of them when we start our WAC schedule next week," said Naber.

GCU 3, ULM 0