Women’s Volleyball Hosts GCU Invitational

Friday, September 18

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

UC Riverside

Photo by: Darryl Webb

9/16/2015 12:54:00 PM | Volleyball

Grand Canyon (2-7 WAC) vs. UC Riverside (4-6, Big West)
Date: Friday, Sept. 18
Time: 6:00 p.m. (MST)
Location: Phoenix, Ariz. – Antelope Gymnasium
Live Stats
Live Video

Grand Canyon vs. Northern Arizona (7-3, Big Sky)
Date: Saturday, Sept. 19
Time: 6:00 a.m. (MST)
Location: Phoenix, Ariz. – Antelope Gymnasium
Live Stats
Live Video

Grand Canyon vs. Boise State (6-3, Mountain West)
Date: Sunday, Sept. 20
Time: 1:00 a.m. (MST)
Location: Phoenix, Ariz. – Antelope Gymnasium
Live Stats
Live Video

PHOENIX – After hosting last week's GCU Tournament, the Grand Canyon women's volleyball team is back at this weekend hosting its second tournament, the GCU Invitational. The Antelopes look to extend their two-match winning streak as they host Boise State, UC Riverside and in-state rival Northern Arizona.

Grand Canyon is coming off its first two wins of the season with victories over Niagara and Charleston Southern. In their final match of the GCU Tournament, the Lopes picked up their first sweep of the season over Niagara ending the match with a dominating 25-14 victory in the third set. GCU's serves were on point against Niagara as they came away with eight aces led by Haley Glass with four aces and Natalie Tardy put up a team-high 14 kills. This season the Lopes have four players with 50 points or more led by Tardy with 97.5 points and right behind her is Jordyn Sanchez with 91 points while Katrice Pond has 59 points and Hannah Hicks has 52.5 points. After being selected to the All-Tournament Team at the Nebraska Invite, Tardy has continued her hot start to the season leading the team with 90 kills and 3.48 points per set.

Scouting Boise State
The Broncos have had a great start to their season with three of their six wins coming from a neutral sites. Boise State has been led by Sierra Nobley this season with 145 kills and a team leading 4.83 kills per set. Nobley leads BSU in kills by more than 68 kills with Maddy O'Donnell coming in second with 77 kills. Boise State is riding a four-match winning streak heading into the tournament after taking first place at the North Texas Invitational defeating North Texas, Houston and Abilene Christian.

Scouting Northern Arizona
The Lumberjacks have had a solid start to their season traveling all across the country. NAU has played in three tournaments to open the season including the James Madison Classic, the Indiana Invitational and its own Lumberjack Classic. The Lumberjacks lone match that was not in a tournament this season was against No. 10 in the country Arizona State and NAU defeated the Sun Devils in the second set 25-13 but fell to ASU 3-1 in the match. NAU already has two players with triple-digit kills in just 10 matches. Janae Vander Ploeg leads NAU with 163 kills and Lauren Jacobsen is second on the team with 141 kills. Payton Bock became NAU's all-time career block assists this season with 367 career block assists.

Scouting UC Riverside
The Highlanders have four players with 50 kills or more this season led by Fabiana Rosas with 90 kills. Alexis Urbach is right behind Rosas with 83 kills and Alex Gresham sits with 81 kills. Just 10 matches into the season and Riverside already has two women with 100-plus digs. Maddie Hubbell leads the Highlanders with 169 digs and Chelsea Doyle has 104 digs for UC Riverside, putting her at 2.89 digs per set.