Errors plague Lopes in loss to IPFW

Friday, March 18

Fort Wayne, Ind.

4 p.m.

Grand Canyon

11-10, 4-7MIVA

IPFW

8-13, 1-8MIVA

Grand Canyon

IPFW

3/18/2016 8:15:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Samantha Fell

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – GCU suffered a tough road loss to the IPFW Mastodons on Friday evening. After winning the first two sets, the Lopes were unable to finish the match and dropped the final three sets to lose by scores of 25-22, 25-17, 25-27, 23-25, and 15-17. Grand Canyon's record falls to 11-10 on the season.

Despite the loss, Gerrard Lipscombe had a career night for GCU. The senior knocked down a season-high 26 kills on 46 swings and also added 12 digs during the match.

In the first set, GCU tallied 14 kills with only a single error hitting error. However, the Lopes committed seven errors from behind the service line, a foreshadowing statistic for the match. GCU was able to close out Set 1 behind strong attacking from both Lipscombe and Shalev Saada. Lipscombe scored the final point with a strong kill to win the set 25-22.

Set 2 was the most impressive of the match for the Lopes. The team jumped out to an early 6-1 lead and never relinquished it. GCU had a team-high 16 kills in the set and the defensive effort limited IPFW to only eight kills. Again, Lipscombe ended the match with another kill and GCU dominated with a score of 25-17.

The Mastodons picked up the tempo during the last three sets and refused to go down without a fight. GCU had five missed opportunities at match point in Set 3 and two more chances for match point in Set 5. Attacking errors doomed the Lopes toward the end of each set and service errors plagued the team throughout the entire match. GCU committed a season-high 21 miscues from behind the service line.

Outside hitter Saada recorded 18 kills and six digs during the match while Christian Ward led the team with five blocks and also reached double-digit kills, tallying 11 total. Defensively, Sky Engleman paced GCU with 14 digs from his libero position.

Grand Canyon will look to bounce back as it takes on IPFW again on Saturday evening beginning at 4 p.m.