Lopes fall to national championship participants

Saturday, February 24

Phoenix, Ariz.

11 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Pepperdine

Photo by: Michael Gomez

2/24/2018 10:23:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

GCU takes on reigning national champions and reigning national runner-up at home

By: Fletcher Like

PHOENIX – To be the best, you have to play the best, and that is exactly what Kristen Rohr and her beach volleyball team have set out to do, playing four of the top fifteen teams in the nation during the first weekend.

"It was such a good weekend opening at home," Rohr said. "We played really tough competition and it will help us grow and learn as a team."

The Lopes faced off against the No. 1 and No. 2 teams on Saturday in back-to-back duals, Pepperdine and USC, edged out GCU in very close match-ups.

"Although we lost four matches against some of the top teams, in USC, the reigning national champion, and Pepperdine, the national runner-up last year, we learned that we are very close and through experience can overcome these challenges," Rohr said.

In the first dual, against No. 2 Pepperdine, won the No. 1, 2 3 and 4 pairings while the No. 5 pairing of Emily Reinking and Jamie Walsh was able to knock off the Pepperdine pairing 21-10 and 21-9.

In the dual against No. 1, the reigning national champions, USC, the Lopes and the Trojans had to be decided by the final pairing in the match-up between No.2 Hannah Towne and Jessica Stansfield versus the No.2 USC pairing of Slater and Hallgren. Slater and Hallgren won the match-up 22-24, 21-15, 15-11.

The No. 3 and No. 5 GCU pairings took matches from USC, as Bella Bauman and Taylor Jarzombek used 21-19 and 30-28 set scores to get a win in the No. 3 pairing. Jessica Clark and Madi Relaz went three sets with USC in the No. 5 pairing as the Lopes won 20-22, 21-12, 15-8.

"We are ready to get back to work this week, get a full week or practice in and compete at home again next weekend," Rohr said.

The Lopes take on Vanguard on Friday, March 2 at 7 p.m. and Loyola Marymount the next evening on Saturday at 6 p.m. All matches will be at the Beach Volleyball Stadium on campus.