Lopes lose heartbreaker to No. 6 UCI

Saturday, January 20

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 P.M.

Grand Canyon

6-2

UC Irvine

7-1

UCI

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Michael Rincon

1/20/2018 9:47:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

GCU falls in five sets in front of record-breaking crowd

By: Alex Nash

PHOENIX – The No. 12 ranked Grand Canyon University men's volleyball team dropped a close match to No. 6 UC-Irvine on Saturday night 2-3. The match went five sets with scores of 25-22, 17-25, 25-17, 19-25 and 13-15. The loss puts the Lopes at 6-2 on the season while UCI improves to 7-1.

"Ironically, I am more pleased with our performance tonight than our win on Thursday," commented head coach Matt Werle. "We are starting to execute our scouting report better and better each night. A few bad decisions late cost us this match."

The two ranked teams fought through a five set battle in front of 1,379 fans, an Antelope Gym record for volleyball. The Anteaters out hit the Lopes .438 to .281 and amassed more kills with 63 to 59. The home crowd kept GCU in the game and gave them momentum when needed but a late UCI rally would put the match away.

GCU was led on offense by Shalev Saada who had 20 kills and one assist with a .263 hitting percentage. Cody Williams was the other Lope with double digit kills adding 11. Redshirt Senior Cullen Mosher came in during the fourth set and was an instant difference-maker on his way to eight kills, two aces and a block all while hitting .545. Luke Turner and Sky Engleman both had seven digs while setter Zachary Melcher contributed six of his own.

UCI was led by Karl Apfelbach who had 17 kills on 37 attempts. The Anteaters had three players with double digit kills and four players hit .500 or better.

The first set started like two top-15 teams were going at it. There were four ties within the first twenty points of the match until GCU had an 11-9 lead. GCU would take the lead and run with it after a 3-0 run forced an UCI timeout. The Anteaters fought hard after the break and tied the match at 20. The Lopes responded with a 4-0 run led by kills from Saada, Ashton King and Puna Kaniho moments before a UCI service error gave the Lopes a 25-22 set win.

Set number two started with the Lopes up 3-0 but a 7-0 run by UCI gave the visitors the momentum they would use to take charge of the set and ultimately win it by a score of 17-25. The third set however was all GCU as they would use a .483 hitting percentage, 16 kills and two errors to win by the same score and take the match lead 2-1.

The fourth set started like the ones before them, both teams fighting to a tie, 6-6. UCI used two 3-0 runs and hit .625 in the set on their way to a 19-25 win and tie the match 2-2.

The fifth set encapsulated the entire match. Back and forth play by the two sides had everyone in Antelope Gym on their feet. With UCI up 5-6 an error would tie the set setting up back-to-back aces from Mosher swinging the momentum and giving the Lopes an 8-6 lead before switching sides. The two teams would reset and continue the battle as the score read 12-12 late in the set. A GCU error followed by an Anteater ace put UCI up by two and a service error would shrink the margin to one. UCI used a kill from Aaron Koubi to take the set and the match.

"We are nowhere near our potential and that is something that is very exciting as we continue to move through non-conference play." Said Werle. "We will learn from this and move forward."

Looking ahead

GCU will have almost a week long break before they host UC-San Diego on Friday Jan. 26 at 6 p.m. UCSD will then play another Arizona opponent in Ottawa University on Saturday at Antelope Gym before Ottawa takes on GCU at 6 p.m.