In Front of Record Crowd, Lopes Fall Short of Upset Against No. 11 Ohio State, 3-1

Friday, February 27

Antelope Gymnasium

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

7-7, 2-5

Ohio State

12-3, 6-1

Ohio State

Grand Canyon

Gerrard Lipscombe had 10 kills and hit .381 against Ohio State Friday.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

In Front of Record Crowd, Lopes Fall Short of Upset Against No. 11 Ohio State, 3-1

2/27/2015 8:18:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

In front of the largest crowd to ever watch men's volleyball at Antelope Gymnasium, Grand Canyon fell short of upsetting No. 11 Ohio State Friday, dropping a 3-1 decision to the Buckeyes.

A crowd of 1,144 was on hand to see the Lopes (7-7, 2-5) even the match at 1-1, before dropping the final two sets. Scores for the match were 25-18, 16-25, 25-21, 25-20. Ohio State improved to 12-3 and 6-1 in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.

The previous largest crowd was 534 for a MIVA match against Quincy, March 7, 2014. Earlier this season, at GCU Arena, the Lopes had a crowd of 2,549 when it opened the regular season against USC.

In the victorious second set, GCU hit .650. Freshman Shalev Saada had six of his 17 kills in the second. The Lopes had a pair of service aces and six blocks.
"The second set was a complete set for us, but you have to put together a whole match against a program that's played at the elite level as long as Ohio State has," said GCU coach Jeremy Price.

The Buckeyes hit .411 for the match and were over .500 for two sets, hitting .636 in the first and .520 in the third. The Lopes hit .273. GCU had more blocks (11.5-7), service aces (5-4) and less service errors (15-19).

Saada hit .278 (17-7-36) and was the co-team leader in digs with seven. Ryan Mather had 12 kills, seven digs and was part of three blocks. Gerrard Lipscombe had 10 kills and hit .381 (10-2-21). Ashton King was part of a match-best eight blocks, including one solo. Setter Michael Milstein had 38 assists, two service aces and five block assists. Christian Ward had four kills and three block assists.

Ohio State's Miles Johnson led all hitters with 20 kills. Setter Christy Blough had 47 assists.

"It was a great crowd for a very competitive MIVA match and we're excited to do it all over again tomorrow, only with a different result," added Price.

The teams wrap up the two-match series with a 6 p.m. contest at Antelope Gym Saturday.

OSU 3, GCU 1