Lopes come up short against No. 6 Hawaii

Friday, January 22

Honolulu, Hawaii

10 p.m.

Grand Canyon

5-2

#6 Hawaii

6-1

Grand Canyon

Hawai`i

1/23/2016 8:56:00 AM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Samantha Fell

HONOLULU – GCU men's volleyball team suffered their second loss of the season to the No. 6 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. The Lopes lost in four sets by scores of 23-25, 25-20, 18-25, and 19-25. Grand Canyon falls to 5-2 on the season and Hawaii improves to 6-1.

Head Coach Matt Werle felt the match against Hawaii was great preparation for the rest of the season.

"Although the scores might not show it, we played a more complete match," Werle said. "Both teams seemed to raise their level of play but we just weren't able to keep up with them."

Outside hitter Gerrard Lipscombe again led the Lopes with 11 kills, 8 digs, and 3 aces. Lipscombe has amassed 70 kills for the season for an average of 10 per game. Puna Kaniho led GCU from the setter position with 28 assists and libero Sky Engleman contributed 11 digs.

In the first set, Ryan Mather and Ashton King each knocked down 4 kills to pace the Lopes. The score was tied ten times throughout the first set and was even at 23-23 before a kill and an ace from the Warriors closed out the set.

The Lopes held a lead for the majority of set two. Christian Ward had 5 kills and Lipscombe added 4 to help GCU maintain their advantage. Grand Canyon hit 71% in the set compared to a 58% attack percentage from Hawaii.

Errors hurt the Lopes in set three. As a team, they committed four service errors and five attacking errors during the set. Cullen Mosher had 5 kills to lead GCU.

In the fourth set, Hawaii recorded 18 kills compared to only 10 for the Lopes. Setter Michael Milstein entered the game to contribute 8 assists during the set.

"This trip was a huge help to prepare us for the tough conference matches ahead," Werle noted.

The Lopes begin MIVA conference play at 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29in Romeoville, Illinois as they face off against Lewis University. A second match will be played at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30.