Mather Gets 30 Kills In GCU's 5-Set Win

Tuesday, January 27

Loretto, PA

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

4-2

St. Francis

0-9

Grand Canyon

Saint Francis U

Ryan Mather had a career-high 30 kills, a GCU record for a five-set match, in a 3-2 win over Saint Francis Tuesday.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

1/27/2015 8:35:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

GCU-Saint Francis Meet Again Wednesday at 5

Ryan Mather had a career-high 30 kills, the most ever by a GCU player in a five-set match, to lead Grand Canyon to a 3-2 victory over Saint Francis at DeGol Arena in Loretto, Pa., Tuesday.

Mather had seven kills in the fifth set to negate a valiant comeback effort from the Red Flash. GCU won the first two sets, 25-19, 25-20, dropped the next two 20-25, 24-26 before taking the fifth, 15-12. The win was GCU's fourth straight.

"We did what we needed to do in the fifth set," said GCU coach Jeremy Price. "We made serves and kept the pressure on them. (Sophomore middle blocker) Christian Ward blocked well and we rode Mather."

The record for kills in a match is 31, set in a four-setter by Ben Ponnet in 2014 against Quincy.

Mather had nine kills in the nip-and-tuck fourth set. The set saw the teams trade leads six times and have 17 ties. There were nine ties in the fifth. Down 11-9, GCU scored six of the final seven points. Four came on successful Mather attacks. The redshirt-junior hit .288 for the match on a school-record 66 attempts.

Middles Ward and redshirt-freshman Ashton King combined to hit .591. Both had seven kills on 11 attempts. Ward had the lone error. The sophomore also had nine blocks, including three solos.

Sophomore setter Michael Milstein had 53 assists, two service aces and was one of three Lopes to have 12 digs, joining frosh libero Sky Engleman and Mather.
Gerrard Lipscombe added 11 kills and seven digs. Jon Schaefer had seven kills and seven digs. The outside hitters each had one service ace.

Both teams had 62 kills, but the Lopes were more efficient, hitting .283 to the Red Flash's .226. Both clubs had 10.5 blocks and 15 service errors. GCU had one more service ace (4-3). There were a total of 31 ties and 11 lead changes.

GCU had more digs (56-49) and a better sideout percentage (65-61).

Grand Canyon improves to 4-2. It was the Lopes first five-set win of the season. They dropped two in a row to start the season to nationally-ranked USC and UC San Diego.

GCU and Saint Francis (0-9) meet again Wednesday, with a one-hour earlier start time (5 p.m., Arizona Time). Fans can follow stats and video (free) links at www.gculopes.com.

"The record is not indicative of the Saint Francis team. They are a scrappy team and I have a lot of respect for coach Mike Rumbaugh. We need to be prepared for a battle Wednesday night," said Price.

The Red Flash took No. 1 Loyola to five sets last week, and most of their previous matches were against nationally-ranked teams, losing to No. 2 Lewis, No. 4 UC Santa Barbara, No. 5 UCLA, No. 12 Long Beach State, No. 13 Cal State Northridge, No. 13 IPFW.

GCU 3, SFU 2