GCU Drops Tight Match At Concordia

Thursday, April 2

Irvine, CA

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

13-13

Concordia-Irvine

14-10

Grand Canyon

Concordia-Irvine

Shalev Saada had 17 kills and 10 digs at Concordia-Irvine Thursday.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

4/2/2015 10:41:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Grand Canyon came out on the short end of a five-set match at NAIA No. 6 Concordia-Irvine Thursday.

GCU (13-13) dropped the 3-2 match by set scores of 25-17, 24-26, 25-23, 25-27, 15-12.

Ryan Mather had a match-best 26 kills. Shalev Saada had a double-double with 17 kills and 10 digs. Gerrard Lipscombe had 14 kills and hit .367 (14-3-30). Sky Engleman had a match-best 12 digs. Setter Michael Milstein had a career-high 61 assists and two of GCU's three service aces. Lipscombe and Christian Ward were each part of four blocks. Ward also added six kills.

GCU forced the fifth set by getting back-to-back blocks to end the fourth. Saada and Ashton King combined to give the Lopes a 26-25 lead. King and Lipscombe followed for the fourth-set win. Back-to-back kills from Saada and Mather broke a 24-24 tie in the second to even the match 1-1.

The Lopes had more kills than the Eagles (69-64), but the hosts hit for a better percentage (.297-.277), had more blocks (15.5-9) and service aces (4-3). GCU also had a disadvantage in service errors with 17 to Concordia's eight.

"We came out flat in the first set and the next four sets were really tight," said GCU coach Jeremy Price. "We had some guys put up some solid offensive numbers, but they kept the serving pressure on our serving killed us.

"It felt a lot like last Saturday (a 3-2 loss to Lindenwood), it was a battle all the way through."

GCU split the two-match season series with the Eagles, last year's NAIA runner-up and 2013 champion. The Lopes won 3-1 in Phoenix earlier in the season. Concordia improved to 14-10.

GCU has two more non-conference road matches next week at George Mason (Apr. 9, 11), before finishing up the regular season at home with Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association matches with IPFW on April 17-18.

CUI 3, GCU 2