Lopes earn first win behind King's 20 kills

Saturday, January 7

La Jolla, CA

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

1-1

UC San Diego

0-2

Grand Canyon

UC San Diego

1/7/2017 8:36:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Samantha Fell

LA JOLLA, Calif. – The Grand Canyon men's volleyball team defeated UC San Diego in four sets by scores of 29-27, 23-25, 25-16 and 25-23 on Saturday night. The Lopes earn their first victory of the year to improve to 1-1 on the season while the Tritons fall to 0-2. Middle blocker Ashton King had a huge night, leading the Lopes with 20 kills.

After a tough matchup with No. 8 UC Irvine on Friday night, the Lopes bounced back with a more efficient offensive attack. GCU recorded 56 total kills compared to 43 for the Tritons.

"You could tell that the team settled their nerves quicker tonight," head coach Matt Werle noted. "Most of the match, excluding the third set, was very back and forth. Both teams had nice runs from the service line."

In addition to King's 20 kills, middle Drake Silbernagel and outside Luke Turner added double-digit kills as well. Silbernagel notched 11 kills, five aces, four digs, and five blocks while Turner added 13 kills, five digs, and three blocks.

"The difference tonight was our attack out of the middle of the court," Werle added. "Ashton and Drake were such a threat that it started opening our pin attack late when Luke turned it on."

Werle was impressed with a number of Lopes players during the match. Setters Michael Milstein and Zachary Melcher split duties and each effectively led the offense. Milstein recorded 28 assists and Melcher had 22. Libero Sky Engleman led the Lopes with 14 digs.

"Michael and Zach distributed the ball well tonight," Werle said. "Ashton was phenomenal out of the middle. When a middle has 20 kills in a match, that is extremely impressive."

Up next, the Lopes will travel to Manoa, Hawaii for a pair of matches on Wednesday, Jan. 11 and Friday, Jan. 13. Hawaii is currently 2-0 on the season.