Lopes Take No. 7 USC To The Wire Before Falling 3-2

Wednesday, January 7

GCU Arena

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

0-1

USC

1-0

USC

Grand Canyon

GCU opened its regular season with a 3-2 loss to No. 7 USC in front of a men's volleyball record crowd of 2,549 at GCU Arena.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

1/7/2015 10:25:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

In front of the largest men's volleyball crowd in program history – 2,549 - Grand Canyon took No. 7 Southern California to the brink before falling 3-2 at GCU Arena Wednesday in the season opener for both programs.

The Antelopes (0-1) rallied from a 2-1 deficit, forcing a fifth set by winning a marathon 35-33 nail-biter in the fourth.

The final set scorers were, 23-25, 25-15, 25-21, 33-35, 15-9.

"It was a long, tough, hard-fought match," said GCU coach Jeremy Price. "It was a great atmosphere and we want to thank the students, faculty, administration and all of our supporters. They all saw what a great spectator sport men's volleyball is."

GCU got solid performances from its two transfers. Senior Jon Schaefer, who was an All-Conference Carolinas selection at Limestone last season, had a match-best 20 kills and hit .474 on 38 swings. He also had eight digs and the team's lone service ace. Redshirt-freshman middle hitter Ashton King, who came over from Pacific after the California school dropped its program, was part of a team-high seven blocks and added four kills.

Down 19-14 in the fourth, the Lopes battled back to a tie at 24-24. During that 10-5 stretch, Schaefer had three kills, including one that tied the match. The teams went back and forth. There were 11 ties and three lead changes in the set. Trailing 33-32, GCU tied it on a USC service error. Schaefer put GCU ahead on an assist from setter Tanner Maxwell, who helped spark the comeback when he entered the lineup in the fourth. An attack error by the Trojans gave GCU the set.

Maxwell had 23 assists and two kills in two sets.

"I thought we did a good job with the end game in the fourth set," said Price. "Everyone was living and dying on every point."

In the fifth, the Trojans took the lead for good, breaking a tie at 5-5 on a kill from Alex Slaught.

In his return tafter missing all of 2014 due to injury, junior Ryan Mather, who moved from middle hitter to opposite side hitter, had 15 kills and eight digs. Gerrard Lipscombe added seven kills and seven digs. Christian Ward had six kills and was part of seven blocks, including two solos. Kyle Miller had a team-best 11 digs.

USC and Team USA setter Micah Christenson had 52 assists, eight digs and seven block assists.

The Lopes were edged in blocking, 16-15, and digs, 42-40. The Trojans also had more kills (61-54) and service aces (7-1). USC hit .256 as a team. GCU hit .173, but hit .486 with 21 kills in the fourth set.

"We have a lot to work on," added Price. "We learned that we need to get better and we know we have another MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) team coming in Saturday."

GCU takes on UC San Diego at 2 p.m. Saturday at Antelope Gymnasium. Fans unable to come out to the match can follow all the action with live links at www.gculopes.com.

Click here to check out coach Price's postgame comments with Vinnie Lopes from Off The Block.

USC 3, GCU 2