Comeback falls short at UTRGV

Thursday, September 27

Edinburg, Texas

5 p.m.

Grand Canyon

7-7, 0-2WAC

UT Rio Grande Valley

11-6, 2-1WAC

Grand Canyon

UT Rio Grande Valley

9/27/2018 7:07:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Lopes battle but fall to Vaqueros in Edinburg

By: Alex Nash

EDINBURG, Texas – Grand Canyon women's volleyball dropped the first match of its WAC road trip with a four-set loss at UT Rio Grande Valley on Thursday night.

UTRGV defeated GCU 25-22, 25-10, 22-25 and 26-24. As they have all season, the Lopes fought until the final point. Down 2-0 to start the match, the freshman trio of K.J. Adams, Esmee Priem and Annabelle Kubinski gave the Lopes a spark to take the third set and cause extra volleyball in the fourth.

The three freshmen each netted nine kills while Kubinski recorded the best hitting percentage at .269. Sophomore setter Molly Feldmeth helped pace GCU with 33 assists, adding three kills and six digs. On defense, sophomore libero Teagan DeFalco recorded her second 30-plus dig performance of the season with 33. Kubinski and Adams teamed up to lead in blocks with five each.

GCU (7-7) was outhit on the night .167 to .049.

The Lopes came out of the gate swinging, using a 4-0 scoring run to cause a UTRGV timeout with GCU leading 10-5. The home team gathered itself and used a scoring run of its own to secure nine of the next 10 points and take a lead it would not relinquish. A kill from Kubinski had the score at 24-22 but a service error ended the first set.

The momentum carried into the second set as UTRGV (11-6) grabbed an early lead and won 25-10 to move its match lead to 2-0.

Set No. 3 had a familiar feeling with the Vaqueros jumping out to a 10-5 lead but two errors and a Melody Horton kill shifted momentum to GCU. Adams, Kubinski and Sarah Hagge combined for kills and blocks that gave the Lopes a 14-13 lead and sparked a battle. The two sides went back and forth until GCU called a timeout with a 23-22 set lead. UTRGV served an error and Adams followed with a kill to give the Lopes the set.

UTRGV kepts its fast set starts alive to begin the fourth set but called a timeout after GCU closed the gap to 14-8. The Lopes kept fighting and pulled within a point on six occasions with the help of kills by Hagge, Kubinski and Priem to bring the match within one point The Lopes finally erased the lead when Priem used a big swing to tie the match at 24 but UTRGV responded to close the match with two kills.

GCU travels to Las Cruces, N.M., next to take on New Mexico State on Saturday.