Lopes Pick Up Third Straight Sweep

Friday, January 16

Antelope Gymnasium

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Coker

Gerrard Lipscombe had eight kills and nine digs in Friday's win over Coker.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

1/16/2015 7:26:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Grand Canyon won its third straight match, all by 3-0 scores, with a sweep of Coker at Antelope Gymnasium, Friday.

GCU (3-2) won by set scores of 29-27, 25-18, 25-16.

"It was good to get through the weekend and I'm pleased about getting three matches and not dropping a set," said coach Jeremy Price. "We were able to get a lot of guys playing time and they learned the difference between practice time and game time."

For the third straight match, junior Ryan Mather had double-digits in kills. He led all hitters Friday with 13. Mather hit .333 for the match (13-6-21) and added three block assists. Junior Gerrard Lipscombe had eight kills and nine digs. He also hit .333 (8-2-18). In his first full match, freshman Luke Turner had six kills and was part of three blocks.

Junior Sean Saxton made his initial appearance of 2015 and led the team with five blocks, including one solo. Senior Keaton Berry had five kills and three blocks. Redshirt-freshman setter Puna Kaniho, who made his debut on Thursday, came back Friday with 32 assists, three digs and two block assists.

Off the bench in the third set, redshirt–freshman Cullen Mosher provided two service aces.

"It wasn't a great match for us, offensively, but we gutted some things out," said Price.

GCU hit .218 for the match, .130 each in the last two sets. The Lopes hit .344 in the opening set. GCU out-blocked Coker 9.5-8 and had more digs, 23-17. GCU had six service aces and seven service errors, while the Cobras had five aces and 13 errors. Coker hit .078.

The Antelopes are off until Jan. 27 when they will make their first road trip of the season. GCU takes on Saint Francis Jan. 27-28 before returning home for the MIVA home opener Feb. 6 and Feb. 8 against No. 5 Lewis, one of six teams to make the 2014 NCAA Championships.

GCU 3, CC 0