Lopes mount impressive comeback in five sets

Thursday, February 8

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 P.M.

Grand Canyon

11-2,1-0

Pepperdine

4-3,0-1

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Pepperdine	25	25	14	20	9	2
Grand Canyon	17	17	25	25	15	3

Photo by: Slaven Gujic

2/8/2018 9:37:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

N0. 10 GCU earned a five set win after being down 0-2 to No. 11 Pepperdine

By: Alex Nash

PHOENIX – The Grand Canyon University men's volleyball team earned their first ever MPSF win on Thursday night coming back from an 0-2 deficit to defeat Pepperdine 3-2. Set scores were 17-25, 17-25, 25-14, 25-20 and 15-9. The win is GCU's fifth in a row and moves them to 11-2 and 1-0 in conference play while Pepperdine drops to 4-3 and 0-1.

"We have been getting off to slow starts in the last few matches and it has hurt us," said head coach Matt Werle. "Pepperdine came out ripping from the service line and attacked aggressively. Our service game needs to improve and get tougher in order to keep teams like that out of system."

GCU's slow start looked to be the end but the Lopes kept fighting and refused to give up. Down 0-2 after 17-25 defeats in both sets, Werle changed the lineup for the third and the GCU attack came alive. Luke Turner, Zachary Melcher and Cullen Mosher provided the spark GCU needed to mount a comeback. The third set saw a .571 hitting percentage for the Lopes followed by marks of .480 and .500 to bring the match average to a .392 mark compared to the Waves .254. GCU would lead in kills, blocks, assists and digs and only trail in aces and points on the night.

Mosher led the match with 15 kills to go along with a .462 hitting percentage and an ace. Turner and Will Schwob also netted double-digit kills with 12 and 11 respectively with Turner hitting at a .733 mark. Melcher came off the bench at the end of the second set and would go on to lead the Lopes in assists with 27 in addition to three kills and an ace. On defense, both Ashton King and Caleb Blazer led the Lopes with six blocks with Sky Engleman adding a team-high 12 digs.

"I am very pleased with the way Cullen and Luke attacked tonight," commented Werle. "Both of those guys were unstoppable on the outside for the final three sets."

The Waves looked like they would out-play GCU in every part of the game through the first two sets. The visitors hit .524 and .407 while keeping the Lopes below .300. GCU had one lead in the match which came at the 1-0 point in the second set. After that the Waves would take over again and jumped out to a commanding 0-2 match lead.

Instead of allowing the first home sweep since 2015 the Lopes made some lineup changes and started the third with Turner and Melcher. The changes paid off early helping GCU run up a 6-2 lead. Pepperdine responded by bringing the set within one before the Lopes used a 4-0 with a Mosher kill and ace at the bookends. From there, the visitors would fail to come within three points and trailed by as much as 11 before King buried a kill to keep the Lopes alive, 1-2.

The momentum stayed with GCU as they jumped out to another early lead in the fourth, this time with the score reading 5-2. The Lopes would keep a healthy lead until back-to-back aces helped the Waves land five of six points and brought the set to 23-20. Mosher would go on to land a quick kill before a Waves attack error sealed the set and tied the match at two apiece.

The Lopes set the tone early in the fifth thanks to a 3-0 lead behind a Melcher ace, Blazer kill and a huge triple-block from Schwob, Blazer and Turner which forced a Pepperdine timeout. GCU would go up by as much as seven thanks in part to kills from Mosher and King in addition to back-to-back Pepperdine errors. The Waves tried to stop the Lopes reverse sweep with two late points but Mosher would mark the comeback complete with a kill to give the Lopes the 15-9 set and match win.

Werle knows how tough these conference matches can be and is expecting more battles saying, "The quicker our guys understand that the MPSF is going to be a grind each match, the better off we will be when starting matches. With that being said, I am very proud of the way these guys never gave up!"

Looking ahead

The Lopes will continue their home stand and conference play on Saturday, Feb. 10 when No. 2 UCLA comes to Antelope Gym. The Bruins are 12-1 on the season and have been a constant at the top of the AVCA rankings. The match is set to begin at 6 p.m. (MST).