Lopes sweep Lindenwood in home opener

Friday, January 20

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

2-3

Lindenwood

0-4

Lindenwood

Grand Canyon

1/20/2017 5:48:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Josh Hauser

PHOENIX - After more comfortable wins in the first two sets, Grand Canyon gutted out a tightly-contested final set to sweep Lindenwood by scores of 25-21, 25-18 and 27-25 in front of a packed house of 1,124 fans at Antelope Gymnasium on Friday night. The attendance total topped last year's season high by nearly 300 fans. The Lopes claimed their home opener for the second straight year and seventh time in the last eight years. Also the first conference game of the season, Grand Canyon improves to 1-0 in MIVA play.

"It's always fun to play in front of our home crowd here," head coach Matt Werle said. "The Havocs are great, plus we have a big family following too. The guys get a little bit extra amped to play at home. You could tell from the beginning of the match, the emotions were high, the guys were jumping a little higher than normal."

Matthew Kinnebrew, Drake Silbernagel and Cody Williams led the charge all night for Grand Canyon, and they finished the match leading GCU with 11, 8 and 8 kills, respectively. Silbernagel recorded his eight kills while hitting an impressive .545. Michael Milstein logged a season-high 32 assists while Ashton King recorded five blocks.

"Our middles did a really, really nice job for us tonight," Werle said. "The timing of the blocks was very, very good for us."

With an early 2-0 deficit in the opening set, Williams scored the first points of the home season for Grand Canyon on a kill. In the middle of the set, the Lopes went on a quick 6-2 spurt that had them in front for the majority of the set. The run was keyed by a pair of kills from Silbernagel and a kill by Kinnebrew that brought the packed house to its feet.

While the Lions cut it to as close as three points late, GCU closed out the opening set on a light hit by Kinnebrew. Silbernagel closed the first with a match-leading six kills, while junior Cullen Mosher finished with three digs.

Moving to the second set, Kinnebrew broke a rare stretch of three straight service errors between the two clubs by recording a service ace putting the Lopes up on the Lions 6-3. After a block by Williams and King and an ensuing attack error, Lindenwood found itself trailing 9-4 and burned an early timeout. The timeout didn't cool the Lopes though who, in total, went on an 8-1 run to take control of the match. Milstein was involved in a pair of key blocks that further pushed the momentum in GCU's favor.

Milstein forced Lindenwood to call its second timeout of the set after an emphatic kill that put Grand Canyon in front 20-12. Williams and King combined for another block that sealed the set for GCU, grant the Lopes a double-digit lead at 23-13. Grand Canyon went on to win the set 25-18. Through a pair of sets, Kinnebrew was up to seven kills with Williams and King each totalling three blocks.

Grand Canyon got out to a 5-1 lead in the third set, but the visitors climbed all the way to even up the set at 11 and even grab a two-point lead that prompted a GCU timeout. Lindenwood maintained its slim edge throughout the late stages, until the Lopes went on a late run. Grand Canyon used three critical blocks to take the lead, and the match ended on a kill by junior Shalev Saada. The Lopes won the third and final set by a score or 27-25.

The victory continued a tradition of success in home openers for the Lopes men's volleyball program. Grand Canyon's only loss in a home opener this decade came at the hands of a highly-touted USC squad in 2015.

GCU and Lindenwood will meet for Game 2 of the two-game series on Saturday night in Antelope Gymnasium. Like all home games in 2017, the match will be available on GCU.tv with a scheduled start of 6 p.m.