Lopes hit the road for the Cactus Classic in Tucson


Grand Canyon Lopes (3-0, 0-0 WAC)	at	Radford Highlanders (3-0, 0-0 Big South)	Arizona Wildcats (2-1, 0-0 PAC-12)	Eastern Kentucky Colonels (2-2, 0-0 OVC)
		Fri, Sept.1 at 10 a.m. MST	Fri, Sept.1 at 7 p.m. MST	Sat, Sept. 2, 11 a.m. MST
GCU Match Notes		Live Stats Live Video	Live Stats Live Video	Live Stats Live Video

PHOENIX – The Grand Canyon women's volleyball team (3-0) heads to Tucson for the Cactus Classic, hosted by the University of Arizona, this Friday and Saturday. The Lopes will take on Radford (10 AM) and Arizona (7 PM) on Friday, and will conclude the tournament on Saturday against Eastern Kentucky.

The Lopes began the year last week at the Syracuse Tournament, including an opening 25-16, 27-29, 25-23, 25-22 win at the Orange. GCU was paced by Claire Kovensky and Teagan DeFalco, both tallying double-doubles in their first collegiate matches. Senior Randahl Powers also chipped in with 14 kills while Emma Ahern had a match-high 31 digs. Through three matches, Kovensky leads the Lopes with 4.14 points per set, while DeFalco averages 3.59 points per set. Powers is third on the squad with 3.41 points per set.

Maria Adams leads GCU with a .296 attack percentage while Heidi Carpenter has a team-high 82 assists. The top servers of the first weekend went to DeFalco with seven aces, while Carpenter and Tressa Schuler had six aces each. Emma Ahern leads GCU with 5.73 digs per set and Hannah Hicks has a team-high eight blocks.

Radford is a tough team from the Big South as the Highlanders cruised through the first weekend with three wins over Coppin State, Marist and Lehigh. Last season Radford went 24-6 and was knocked off in the Big South Championship match. They finished just outside the top-100 in RPI. Radford has five starters back from the 2016 squad.

Arizona will be another tough opponent for the Lopes as the Wildcats are hungry after starting the season ranked in the top-25 before a 2-1 weekend at the Lipscomb Invitational in Tennessee. Arizona beat East Tennessee State and Middle Tennessee, but fell to host Lipscomb. Arizona finished last season with an RPI of 23, advancing to the NCAA Tournament Round of 16, before falling to Washington.

This will be the second straight year the Lopes will take on Eastern Kentucky. Last season GCU defeated EKU in four sets as part of the GCU Tournament. The Colonels have opened 2017 with a 2-2 mark, including wins over San Diego State and CSUN. EKU has lost to Portland State and UNLV. The Colonels lost only one player from last year's team.

Looking ahead, the Lopes will host the GCU Tournament on Sept. 8-9 in GCU Arena. GCU will host Fordham Friday night. The Lopes take on Gonzaga and Idaho on Saturday.

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Players Mentioned

Maria Adams

Emma Ahern

Heidi Carpenter

Teagan DeFalco

Hannah Hicks

Claire Kovensky

Randahl Powers

Tressa Schuler

Grand Canyon University Athletics