Lopes Drop Another Tough Five-Setter

Saturday, January 10

Antelope Gymnasium

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

0-2

UC San Diego

1-1

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
UC San Diego	18	20	25	25	15	3
Grand Canyon	25	25	23	22	10	2

Jon Schaefer had seven kills and was part of five blocks in Saturday's match with UC San Diego.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

1/10/2015 3:48:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

For the second time in as many matches, Grand Canyon dropped a hard-fought, five-setter, falling 3-2 to visiting UC San Diego at Antelope Gymnasium Saturday.

The Lopes (0-2), lost in five to No. 7 USC on Wednesday. Again, against a team from the top-ranked Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, the Lopes fell to the Tritons (1-1) by set scores of 18-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-22, 15-10.

"It's tough when you lose your first two matches in five sets," said GCU coach Jeremy Price. "Generally, you learn something about yourself in five-set matches, regardless of the outcome. It is an important week of practice coming up with three matches in two days (vs. Coker and Hope International, Thursday and Friday) at the end of the week."

The loss put a damper on a pair of stellar performances. Redshirt-freshman middle hitter Ashton King had a single-match, school-record 12 block assists. It was a record for both assists and total blocks. The previous mark was set March 1, 2010 by Chris Lockwood against Clarke College. Junior outside hitter Gerrard Lipscombe had 17 kills and hit .457. He had just one error on 35 attempts. He also had eight digs, three block assists and one service ace.

Ryan Mather had a double-double with 17 kills and 11 digs. GCU out-blocked UCSD 17-9.5, out-hit the Tritons, percentage-wise .244 to .186. The visitors had more kills (59-55), digs (50-45) and service aces (7-4). Both teams had 13 service errors.

Setter Tanner Maxwell had 48 assists and two service aces. King and Jon Schaefer each had seven kills. Schaefer was part of five blocks. Christian Ward had four kills and four block assists. Kyle Miller had eight digs. In two sets, Sky Engleman had five digs.

The match had 23 ties, 11 in the third set, and seven lead changes.

GCU hosts Coker at noon and Hope International at 6 p.m. on Thursday. Coker and Hope International play at 3 p.m. GCU takes on Coker at 6 p.m. on Friday. Fans unable to make it out to Antelope Gymnasium can follow live links at www.gculopes.com.

UCSD 3, GCU 2