Lopes back on the road at UTRGV and NM State


Grand Canyon Lopes (5-12, 0-5 WAC)	at	UTRGV Vaqueros (10-8, 4-1 WAC)	NM State Aggies (11-7, 3-2 WAC)
		Thur, Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. MST	Sat, Sept. 30 at 1 p.m. MST
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PHOENIX – The Grand Canyon women's volleyball team wraps up the first half of Western Athletic Conference play on the road this week at UTRGV and New Mexico State.

On Thursday, the Lopes will head to Edinburg, Texas to face UTRGV at 5:00 p.m. On Saturday, the Lopes take on NM State at 12:00 p.m. After playing the top team in the WAC last weekend, the Lopes are facing the next two teams in the standings with UTRGV in second place, and NM State in third place.

This year's WAC Tournament is held on the UTRGV campus in Edinburg.

Last week the Lopes fell on the road at Cal State Bakersfield. Claire Kovensky led the Lopes with nine kills and seven digs. Natalie Tardy added seven kills, bringing her career total to 933. The senior is closing in on 1,000 kills, looking to become the fifth Lope all-time to reach that mark and first since the move to NCAA DI.

Kovensky leads GCU with 3.25 kills per set. Teagan DeFalco is next on the squad with 2.63 kills per set. Hannah Hicks has the top hitting percentage at .271 and Maria Adams averages a team best 1.02 blocks per set. Emma Ahern has the team lead in aces with 16 and 4.27 digs per set.

UTRGV suffered its first WAC loss last week, falling at Seattle in five sets. The Vaqueros defeated Utah Valley in four sets on October 5.

UTRGV is led by Ragni Steen Knudsen with 3.66 kills per set. Bojana Mitrovic adds 2.97 kills per set while Barbara Silva is third on the team with 2.43 kills per set. Talita Oliveira has a team-high 1.08 blocks per set. Gysell Zayas leads UTRGV with 4.14 digs per set.

NM State split its matches last week, defeating Seattle, but falling at Utah Valley in five sets.

The Aggies are led by Kassandra Tohm with 3.26 kills per set while Tatyana Battle adds 2.84 kills per set. Lia Mosher leads NM State with 1.02 blocks per set while Ariadnne Sierra has a team high 5.05 digs per set.

After this weekend, the Lopes will conclude 2017 with five of their last seven matches at home in GCU Arena.

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Players Mentioned

Maria Adams

Emma Ahern

Teagan DeFalco

Hannah Hicks

Claire Kovensky

Natalie Tardy

Grand Canyon University Athletics