First road trip starts in paradise

A long road trip awaits the Lopes as the Grand Canyon beach volleyball team heads to Hawaii to begin a four week stretch away from home. The No. 12 team in the country will face host No. 5 Hawaii twice, No. 3 USC once and Nebraska three times this weekend.

The Lopes will face Hawaii for the first time this season, and the fifth time in program history. The Lopes are 0-4 all-time against the Sandbows.

The Lopes will get to see Nebraska three times this weekend, once on Saturday and Sunday and then again on Monday.

"We are really excited to compete in Hawaii this weekend," head coach Kristen Rohr said. "We had a couple great days of practice getting used to the sand and wind as we prepare for the weekend.

"We finally have some of our top players back form injury and illness and this is a great opportunity for us to compete against some of the best teams in the country."

Grand Canyon will get to see USC for the second of three times this season. In the first meeting, the Lopes narrowly missed an opportunity to knock off the defending national champions, falling 3-2. In the final dual of the day, the Lopes fell by two in the third set and had opportunities in other duals as well.

The Lopes are 4-0 since that close loss to the Trojans and the number one pairing of Molly Turner and Kelli Iverson has been unstoppable, only dropping one set in four duals since Iverson returned to the sand following the USC match.

Hannah Towne and Taylor Jarzombek have found winning ways together in the number two spot as well, as have Emily Reinking and Jamie Walsh who have not dropped a set in the five hole since that opening weekend of the season in which the Lopes started 0-4.

"This is going to be a great test for us," Rohr said. "If we want to be the best we have to play the best."

The Lopes begin play Saturday at 1:15 p.m. MT against USC before playing Hawaii at 3:45 p.m. and Nebraska at 6:15 p.m. (all games listed are MT).

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Players Mentioned

Kelli Iverson

Taylor Jarzombek

Emily Reinking

Hannah Towne

Molly Turner

Jamie Walsh

Grand Canyon University Athletics