Lopes Fall to Northern Arizona

Saturday, September 19

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Northern Arizona

Photo by: Darryl Webb

9/19/2015 9:07:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

PHOENIX – The Grand Canyon University women's volleyball team (2-9) were defeated by Northern Arizona (6-0) in a 3-0 battle on the second day of the GCU Invitational.

The Lumberjacks came out strong in the opening sets, winning the first two 25-16, 25-14, but the Lopes made a strong comeback in the third. There were 12 ties and six lead changes in the third, with GCU battling throughout the set. They fell short 25-21.

One of the highlights for the squad included sophomore Natalie Tardy's strong offensive performance, building on her success from both previous games and her first season as an Antelope.

"Natalie did a nice job tonight, both offensively and defensively," said Naber. "It was a bright spot to see her go up and take some risks offensively. She has great range and obviously with 13 kills, 38 attempts, and hitting .263 for the match, she was pretty successful and is something that she is capable of night-in and night-out."

Freshman Melody Horton also stepped it up on the court, recording nine kills for GCU and earning one of the team's service aces during the match.

"Our other outside tonight, Melody, did a nice job coming as a six rotation player," continued Naber. "She swung aggressively and made a couple wrong choices, but it was nice to see her be able to correct those. She played with some fire tonight which I think was contagious for the whole group."

"Megan Byrnes came in off the bench tonight with some fire as well," said Naber. "She swung aggressively and for kills. She wasn't hesitant and it was nice to see that composure out of her and provided leadership on the court."

Redshirt-junior Leigh Stonerook, normally a setter for the Lopes, came onto the court as an outside hitter.

"It was the first time we've asked Leigh to switch positions and it was her first time out swinging," explained Naber. "On 17 attempts, four kills, and two errors, she did what we asked her to do and that was to go for a kill when she had the opportunity to. Defensively she did a nice job, slowing down balls and funneling it to our defense on the block."

"Our focus coming back into the gym tomorrow is first ball contact," concluded Naber. "We competed tonight with a traditionally strong program. NAU does a nice job of playing at a high level consistently and giving a couple points away on controllable mistakes is something we will look to fix tomorrow against Boise State."

Grand Canyon will wrap-up the GCU Invitational tomorrow at 1 p.m. against Boise State in Antelope Gymnasium. Links to live stats, live video, and a full recap will be available at www.gculopes.com.