For the second straight night, Grand Canyon dropped a 3-0 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association match to No. 14 Ohio State at St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio Saturday.
GCU (6-9, 0-6) lost by set scores of 25-18, 25-21, 25-20. Ohio State improved to 7-6 and 4-2.
"Their middles were the difference," said GCU coach Jeremy Price, noting the 19 combined kills from the Buckeyes middle hitters. "Most of the night, we didn't serve tough enough to take their middles out of it."
There were nine ties and five lead changes in the third set. GCU's best hitting set was the second. It had 10 kills and only two errors in 24 attempts for a .333 percentage. The Antelopes had more blocks, 6-5.
Playing his first match as an outside hitter, sophomore
Tanner Maxwell normally a setter, had six kills, a service ace, solo block and two digs. Sophomore middle blocker
Christian Ward returned to the lineup for the first time since the third match of the season, and had a kill in one set of play.
Middle blocker
Keaton Berry hit an efficient .429 with four kills on seven swings. He also had a team-best five block assists.
Ben Ponnet and
Gerrard Lipscombe had seven kills apiece. Libero
Jared Morrison had eight digs. Lipscombe added seven. Senior setter
Keith Smith had 27 assists.
GCU is back in action with non-conference matches in California next week. The Antelopes travel to UC San Diego Friday and to Fullerton to take on Hope International on Saturday.
OSU 3, GCU 0