Lopes Fall To Defending National Champions

Wednesday, March 18

Chicago, IL

5 p.m.

Grand Canyon

12-10, 4-7MIVA

Loyola Chicago

15-1, 7-1MIVA

Grand Canyon

Loyola Chicago

Ryan Mather

Photo by: Darryl Webb

3/18/2015 9:20:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Grand Canyon dropped to 12-9 overall and 4-7 in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association with a 3-0 loss to defending national champion Loyola at Gentile Arena in Chicago Wednesday.

The Ramblers (15-1, 7-1), ranked No. 2 in the nation, defeated the Lopes by set scores of 25-19, 25-19, 25-18.

"Give Loyola a lot of credit, they played really well," said GCU coach Jeremy Price. "They kept pressure on with their serving and we didn't match their serving pressure."

Ryan Mather led GCU with 10 kills and two service aces. Middle hitters Ashton King and Christian Ward combined for nine kills on 14 attempts with just one error for a .571 attack percentage. King had five kills on seven attempts without an error. Ward was co-leader in block assists with Gerrard Lipscombe with three. Lipscombe added six kills. Michael Milstein had 28 assists. Lipscombe and Kyle Miller each had six digs.

"We involved our middles more tonight than we have the last couple of weeks," added Price. "Both had good numbers and Ryan had some good swings."

GCU hit .165 as a team, while the Ramblers hit .403. Loyola had more service aces, 6-3, and blocks, 7-4.5. Loyola had a sideout percentage of 77 percent. GCU was at 58 percent.

Wrapping up a four-match road trip against ranked teams, GCU and Loyola meet again 5 p.m. Thursday (Arizona Time) at Gentile Arena. The Lopes split a two-match series with No. 12 Ball State last weekend. GCU returns to Antelope Gymnasium March 27-28 with 6 p.m. MIVA matches against Lindenwood.

Fans can follow Thursday's match at Loyola with links for live stats and live video (subscription fee required), provided by the host school, at www.gculopes.com.

LUC 3, GCU 0