GCU grinds out fifth straight win, defeats Fort Wayne in five sets

Saturday, March 18

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

14-8

Fort Wayne

5-17

Fort Wayne

Grand Canyon

GCU grinds out fifth straight win, defeats Fort Wayne in five sets

3/18/2017 9:58:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Samantha Fell

PHOENIX – One night after the GCU men's volleyball team broke their own record for conference wins in a season, they broke it again. This time around, the Lopes needed five sets to defeat the Fort Wayne Mastodons. Grand Canyon outlasted the Mastodons, winning its fifth straight match by scores of 18-25, 25-22, 30-28, 21-25, and 19-17. The Lopes move to 14-8 overall, and 10-4 in the MIVA.

"Fort Wayne played really well tonight," head coach Matt Werle stated. "Both of their outsides passed and attacked extremely well and we didn't block well on the right."

After jumping out to early leads in every set last night, the Lopes did the opposite during tonight's match. In set 1, GCU quickly fell behind, down 8-4. Grand Canyon rallied back but was never able to take the lead in the set and fell 25-18.

In the second set, the Lopes changed the tempo and turned to their reigning MIVA Offensive Player of the Week, Cullen Mosher. Mosher led the Lopes with seven kills during the set and helped GCU to a 25-22 win. There was more Mosher in Set 3, as the junior added eight kills, including the set winner, to give the Lopes another set victory by a 30-28 score.

The Lopes temporarily lost their momentum in the fourth set, losing 21-25, but got it back in Set 5. With the score knotted at 11 all in the decisive final set, junior Cody Williams came up big for the Lopes as he knocked down three kills in the final few plays. Another kill from Mosher put GCU up 18-17 and a final kill from Ashton King gave the Lopes the hard-fought 19-17 victory.

"Cullen [Mosher] was phenomenal, again!" Werle added. "Michael [Milstein] did a nice job utilizing the middle tonight. Drake [Silbernagel] was untouchable. We found a way to win and that's what matters. Our depth has allowed us a nice balance of playing time keeping our bodies fresh. We will need our entire roster to succeed."

Mosher led all GCU hitters with 27 kills, adding eight digs and four blocks in the effort. Silbernagel tallied 15 kills and Luke Turner nearly had a double-double, adding nine kills and ten digs. Milstein recorded 57 assists for the night and King led all players with seven blocks.

The Lopes will return to action for two matches this week against the Princeton Tigers. The first contest with Princeton will be played at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 23 while the second will also begin at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 24. Both games will take place in Antelope Gymnasium.