GCU drops three-set match to Ohio State

Friday, February 19

Columbus, Ohio

5 p.m.

Grand Canyon

9-5, 2-3MIVA

#6 Ohio State

11-3, 6-1MIVA

Grand Canyon

Ohio State

2/19/2016 7:50:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Samantha Fell

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The GCU men's volleyball team suffered a tough loss to the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes on Friday night. The Lopes were defeated in three sets by scores of 25-17, 26-24 and 25-18. Grand Canyon falls to 9-5 on the season and 2-3 in the MIVA.

Senior Tanner Maxwell led the Lopes with eight kills on 15 attacks for a .400 attacking percentage. Cody Williams continued to play with enthusiasm on the outside and knocked down six kills while recording a perfect serve-receive effort, passing 20 serves with zero errors.

In the first set, GCU tied the score at 13 all before the Buckeyes began to pull away. OSU scored the last five points of the set with the help of three attacking errors by the Lopes. Williams led Grand Canyon with four kills during the set.

The play was back-and-forth throughout the majority of Set 2. There were eight tied scores and four lead changes as the Lopes put together their best performance of the match. GCU evened the set at 23 all on a Maxwell kill before the Buckeyes turned to their star player. Nicolas Szerszen knocked down three straight kills to seal the win for OSU.

The Buckeyes held the lead for the entire third set as GCU struggled to generate offense. Ohio State used its strong serving game to go on a 7-0 run and extend its lead from 8-3 to 15-3. The Lopes battled back but were not able to close the gap to less than five points for the remainder of the set.

GCU will face Ohio State again on Saturday, Feb. 20 at 6 p.m. MT in Columbus. The Lopes look to rebound and improve both offensively and defensively in the next match.