Upset bids fall short in Hawaii

Saturday, March 17

Manoa, Hawaii

6:15 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Hawaii

Photo by: Michael Gomez

3/18/2018 5:06:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

By: Fletcher Like

HONOLULU – Entering the weekend with six wins on the year, the Lopes were able to secure two wins against Nebraska this weekend. The No. 12 Lopes fell to No. 3 USC on Saturday and to No. 5 Hawaii on Saturday and Sunday.

On the first day of competition at the Outrigger Resorts Hawai'i Invitational, Grand Canyon faced off against USC, a team they had faced on opening weekend of the season. In the rematch between top-15 teams, the Trojans were able to best the Lopes again, this time 5-0.

In the following match, the Lopes took on Nebraska edging the Cornhuskers 3-2, using sweeps from the three, four, and five pairings to do so. Hannah Towne and Jessica Stansfield took down their opponents with identical 21-12 set scores, Taylor Jarzombek and Bella Bauman bested their opponents with 21-5 and 21-11 set scores, and Jamie Walsh and Emily Reinking used 21-16 and 21-18 set scores to top the team from the midwest.

In the final match of the day, the Lopes were able to take a set from host team Hawai'i, but were unable to force any duals to three sets to give the team a chance to win the match. Walsh and Reinking were the pairing that won their dual, doing so with 21-18 and 21-15 set scores.

Sunday afternoon, the Lopes returned to the sand to take on Nebraska and Hawai'i again. The Lopes were again able to top the Cornhuskers 3-2 and got help from the altered lineup of Molly Turner and Hannah Towne in the number one pairing spot. Turner and Towne only allowed the Nebraska pairing to score 17 total points, winning the dual 21-9, 21-8. Katie Pyles and Jessica Clark, the number four pairing, and Walsh and Reinking in the five hole, were both able to take their duals in two sets, giving GCU the match victory for the second time against the Cornhuskers.

Against Hawai'i for the second time in two days, the Lopes pushed three duals to three sets and fell by just two points in each dual. Turner and Towne had match point in their dual before ultimately dropping the match 19-17.

The Lopes get back to action tomorrow in Hawai'i against Nebraska for the third time in as many days. Match time is to be announced. Live stats are unavailable for this match.