Middles lead the way in key win

Friday, March 23

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 P.M.

Grand Canyon

16-8, 3-6

Concordia

10-13, 3-5

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Concordia, Irvine	19	21	25	21	1
GCU	25	25	21	25	3

Photo by: Travis Neely

3/23/2018 9:11:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Ashton King and Caleb Blazer led the Lopes to a season split with Concordia

By: Alex Nash

PHOENIX – No. 13 Grand Canyon men's volleyball team found themselves back in the win column on Friday night, defeating No. 14 Concordia 3-1. Set scores were 25-19, 25-21, 21-25 and 25-21. The win snaps a two game losing skid for the Lopes and improves their record to 16-8, 3-6 while Concordia falls to 10-13, 3-5.

"Any MPSF win is a great win." Commented head coach Matt Werle after the match. "Unfortunately we did not take care of the match in the fashion that we needed for tie-breaking protocol (if it comes to that) for playoff seeding."

The Lopes needed a sweep and a wider point differential to put the tie-breaking scenario in their favor. However, a win helps GCU either way due to a tight race in the MPSF standings with a home playoff match on the line.

On the scoresheet, GCU led in every category except aces in which the two sides tied with four. 59 kills, 15 blocks, 56 assists and 38 digs helped the Lopes secure their third conference win. GCU hit at a .310 mark for the match and above .400 in two sets while holding the Eagles to a .231 match total.

Cody Williams and a combination of middles led the way for the Lopes. Williams led all players with 16 kills, three aces and seven blocks while adding seven digs. Caleb Blazer had a career night setting a new high in kills with 10 to go along with seven blocks and a .714 hitting percentage. Ashton King teamed up with Blazer in the middle and added 13 kills with just one error hitting to the tune of an .857 percentage in addition to five blocks, one solo. Will Schwob was two kills away from his third double-double of the year, recording eight and 14 digs to lead the Lopes defense. Zachary Melcher joined in on setting career highs as he was good for 39 assists in just three sets.

"Our middles were unstoppable." Added Werle. "CUI hit some nice serves down the line but when they served the meat of the court, our serve receive took care of the ball. Will Schwob was huge for us defensively. His play was selfless and he executed what we have been preaching in practice."

The first two sets had GCU primed for a sweep, hitting at .312 in the first and improving to .462 in the second. In set number one the Lopes did not trail and kept the pressure on the eagles, using a couple of scoring runs to pace the offense. A 3-0 run fueled by kills from Williams and Schwob was topped off with a Williams ace to end the set, 25-19 in GCU's favor. The second set was closer as the Eagles fought to tie the match at 15 but the Lopes would fail to trail again and used precise hitting to take the set 25-21 and a 2-0 match lead.

The third set saw the home team trail for the first time as Concordia jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Both sides fought to take an advantage with the lead changing four times until the score was deadlocked at 15. Concordia would go on to score 10 of the next 16 points to take the crucial set, 25-21.

GCU responded in a big way, getting out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth set only to see the Eagles respond and take a 7-6 lead for themselves. After a brief tie, Williams landed a kill and teamed up with Blazer on a block to give GCU the advantage once again. As fate would have it and as is expected in MPSF play, the Eagles did not go down quietly. The visitors rallied to take a 17-16 lead, looking to force a fifth set. Ashton King put a stop to that notion, landing two kills and pacing a 4-0 Lopes run. With the lead in hand, Blazer landed two kills, Williams served up an ace and Blazer put an end to the match with his decisive tenth kill.

Knowing what was at stake, Werle added, "We must outwork and outsmart our opponents to give us a chance to win. We have started to eliminate mental mistakes, but that third set will haunt us if it comes to a tie-breaker with Concordia at the end of regular season."

Looking ahead

The Lopes will hit the road again after the short one match week at home. GCU faces their toughest road trip yet in terms of travel, flying to Stanford on Thursday followed by a flight to BYU on Saturday. MPSF seeding is on the line with the matches starting at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. (MST) respectively.