Men's Volleyball Improves to 2-0

Saturday, January 9

La Jolla, Calif.

8 p.m.

Grand Canyon

2-0

UC San Diego

1-1

Grand Canyon

UC San Diego

Men's VB

1/9/2016 5:49:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Samantha Fell

La Jolla, CA – The Grand Canyon men's volleyball team improved to 2-0 on the season with a win over the UC San Diego Tritons on January 9. GCU defeated the Tritons in three sets by scores of 26-24, 26-24, and 25-12.

Head Coach Matt Werle was proud of how the Lopes played on their two-game road trip in California.

"It was a great team victory," Werle said. "It's always a successful weekend when you can go on the road and get two wins. We look forward to playing in front of our home crowd next weekend."

The first two sets of the match were back-and-forth, with 16 tie scores between the teams. In the third set, the Lopes led from start to finish and recorded an impressive .500 attack percentage. GCU had double digit kills in every set and held the Tritons to only three kills in the final set.

The Lopes were led by Gerrard Lipscombe and Ryan Mather. Lipscombe recorded 11 kills, 7 digs, and 3 service aces on the night. Mather knocked down 10 kills, had 5 digs, and also served 3 aces.

For the match, Grand Canyon had nine aces and Werle felt their success from the service line helped them control the tempo of the game.

"We were tough from the service line tonight," Werle noted. "Our serving subs did a nice job of coming in and producing points as well."

Setter Puna Kaniho tallied 39 assists for the match and did a great job of managing the offense.

Overall, Werle felt the win was a complete team effort.

"Our serve receive got into a nice rhythm early which allowed us to establish our middles. In turn, the rest of our offense was able to open up."

Grand Canyon returns to Antelope Gymnasium for their season home-opener against Holy Names next weekend. The Lopes will face off with the Hawks at 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 15 and again at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16.