Lopes edged in four at Bradley

Saturday, September 16

Peoria, Ill.

4:00 P.M.

Grand Canyon

5-7

Bradley

7-7

Grand Canyon

Bradley

Photo by: Michael Rincon

9/16/2017 6:40:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Mark Oshidari

PEORIA – The Grand Canyon women's volleyball team dropped a close match to wrap-up the Bradley Tournament on Saturday evening. The Braves defeated the Lopes 19-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23, overcoming big matches by Natalie Tardy and Claire Kovensky.

"Our team effort tonight was great," said head coach Tim Nollan. "Looking forward we need to work on finishing sets. We put ourselves in position to have a chance to win, we just need to execute down the stretch."

Tardy finished with 19 kills, the most since her sophomore season. Tardy had 20 kills against Charleston Southern back on September 11, 2015.

Kovensky finished with a double-double with 16 kills and 11 digs.

Hannah Hicks earned her second consecutive All-Tournament Team selection after being named to the GCU All-Tournament Team last week. Hicks finished with a productive six kills and two blocks with no attack errors.

Maria Adams also played well against the Braves with nine kills and nine blocks.

Teagan DeFalco had a team-high 19 digs to go along with six kills. Emma Ahern added 18 digs while Heidi Carpenter had a team-high 28 assists.

Kayla Redfield gave the Lopes their first three-point lead with an ace at 8-5. GCU got three straight kills by Kovensky, Tardy and Adams to lead 17-13 and force the Braves to call timeout. GCU forced Bradley to take a second timeout after a Kovensky kill pushed GCU's lead to 20-14. After the Braves cut the deficit to three, GCU got three straight points to push the lead back to a comfortable 23-17 edge after a DeFalco kill. GCU would cruise to the 25-19 win and hit at a .344 clip in the opening set.

In the second set, both squads held small leads as the Lopes ended up calling the first timeout down 12-10. Bradley opened up a four-point lead at 19-15 as GCU used its second timeout. After the Braves took a 20-16 lead, Tardy sent down back-to-back kills to cut the deficit in half. A big block by Tardy and Adams pulled GCU even at 21-21. Tied at 22-22, Bradley would hold off GCU, scoring the final three points for the 25-22 win.

Tardy began the third set with three straight kills to give GCU an early edge. Bradley responded by scoring six of the next seven points to lead by three. GCU quickly responded from being down 7-4 to leading 10-9 after an Adams kill and a Bradley error. Tied at 16-16, Bradley recorded a pair of kills to take an 18-16 lead. After being down by three points, a Sarah Hagge kill pulled GCU within 21-19, but the Braves would hold on again, 25-21.

In the fourth set, a block by Adams gave the Lopes a 12-9 advantage, their first three-point advantage of the set. Hannah Hicks tied the set up at 15-15 after a kill. Tardy recorded her 18^th kill to even the set at 19-19. Bradley would lead 24-20 before GCU pulled within 24-23 but the Braves got the final kill to seal the match 25-23.

The Lopes finish their non-conference schedule with a 5-7 mark.

GCU is back in action next week when it begins Western Athletic Conference action on the road at UMKC.