GCU loses heartbreaker to No. 8 Ball State

Friday, March 4

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

9-8

#8 Ball State

14-3

BSU

GCU

3/4/2016 9:05:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Samantha Fell

PHOENIX – The GCU men's volleyball team took No. 8 Ball State to five sets but came up just short of pulling the upset, losing by scores of 20-25, 25-18, 22-25, 25-19, and 15-13. The Lopes fall to 9-8 overall and 2-5 in the MIVA while Ball State continues its 11 game winning streak and improves to 14-3.

"We are relatively pleased about the effort tonight," head coach Matt Werle said. "The crowd was wonderful tonight and the guys really thrive in a loud environment."

Outside hitters Shalev Saada and Gerrard Lipscombe both continued their excellent seasons by turning in big performances. Saada led the Lopes with 15 kills, seven digs, and four blocks while Lipscombe added 14 kills and four digs of his own. Tanner Maxwell and Ashton King each contributed eight kills in the effort and Maxwell led the team with 13 digs for the match.

Both teams attacked at a relatively even clip. Ball State had 56 kills on 121 attempts while GCU tallied 52 kills on 140 attempts. The Cardinals played very sound defense as they had 49 digs compared to only 36 for the Lopes. Ball State also added 28 blocks while Grand Canyon only had 18.

"There were some miscues that we will need to correct tomorrow," Werle added. "Ball State has been in a lot of five set matches and this was our first."

This match was Ball State's sixth five-set game of the season and it was the first for GCU. In the opening set, Grand Canyon came out strong behind the powerful hitting of Saada. The sophomore had seven kills in the set as GCU had a game-high 17 kills in Set 1. The Lopes closed out the set with a kill by Lipscombe to earn the 25-20 win.

In Set 2, the Cardinals jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead and GCU was never able to recover. The Lopes had nine attacking errors in the set and Ball State held the lead throughout to win 25-18.

Battling back after a sluggish set, GCU came out strong in the third set. Lipscombe led the way with six kills as the Lopes has 13 kills as a team with only two attacking errors. This time, Saada closed out the 25-22 victory with a kill on the final point.

In the final two sets, the Cardinals committed less errors than GCU to pull out victories in each set. Ball State had 20 combined kills in Sets 4 and 5 while Grand Canyon only managed 13 kills. The Lopes tied the score at 13 all in the final set but a kill and a block from the Cardinals closed out the match.
The Lopes will face Ball State again on Saturday, March 5 at 6 p.m. in Antelope Gym. Coach Werle and the entire team wanted to thank the GCU community for their support and look forward to having another big turnout for the second conference match-up of the weekend.