Antelopes Win Two Exhibition Matches

Saturday, January 3

Antelope Gymnasium

10 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Medicine Hat (exhibition)

GCU opens the regular season Wednesday with a 7 p.m. contest against No. 7 USC at GCU Arena.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

1/3/2015 5:40:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Grand Canyon swept its exhibition matches at Antelope Gymnasium Saturday with a pair of 3-0 victories. The Lopes downed Medicine Hat in the morning, 25-19, 25-21, 25-17 and defeated Grande Prairie Regional College 25-16, 25-17, 25-16 in the afternoon. Both opponents are from Canada's Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference.

"Today was important to gage where we are," said GCU coach Jeremy Price. "With just nine days of practice before our first match with USC, it was good to get a couple matches against quality opponents. It was very useful."

Against Medicine Hat, the Lopes hit .342, led by Ryan Mather with 16 kills and a .387 average. Middle hitters Sean Saxton and Ashton King hit .714 and .636, respectively. Jon Schaefer led with seven digs. Mather and Luke Turner each had six. GCU had 13 blocks, led by King, who was part of eight. Setter Michael Milstein had 33 assists, while the team had six service aces, led by Mather with three.

Against Grande Prairie, the Lopes hit .535. Shalev Saada had 10 kills and Mather added eight. The Lopes had 12 blocks, middles Christian Ward and Keaton Berry were each part of four. Sky Engleman had six digs and setter Puna Kaniho had 41 assists.

"I'm pleased with where we are with our offense and blocking," added Price. "We have to clean up some things. Overall, I am happy with the way we played, but we know Wednesday it starts for real."

The Antelopes open the regular season Wednesday with a 7 p.m. contest against national-power USC at GCU Arena. The Trojans are ranked No. 7 in the nation. Cox7 will carry the television broadcast which can also be found on www.cox7.com. Barry Buetel will provide the play-by-play and GCU women's volleyball coach Kris Naber will add the expert analysis of the action.