Lopes rally downs Marist in 5

Saturday, September 8

Newark, DE

7 a.m.

Grand Canyon

6-3

Marist

3-7

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Grand Canyon	20	25	22	25	15	3
Marist	25	16	25	14	7	2

Photo by: Delaware Athletics

9/8/2018 9:24:00 AM | Volleyball

Box Score

Matthews records career-high 18 kills

By: Mark Oshidari

NEWARK, Del. – The Grand Canyon women's volleyball team served a season-high 15 aces and defeated Marist 20-25, 25-16, 22-25, 25-14, 15-7 on Saturday to wrap up action at the Blue Hen Invitational.

GCU was led by outside hitter Kayla Matthews' 18 kills and 11 digs. The freshman added three blocks and three aces. Sophomore libero Alyssa Chisholm led the service game with five aces and added six digs.

Lopes freshmen middle blockers Kaira Moss (12 kills) and Annabelle Kubinski (11 kills) also were in double figures for kills while Kubinski also tallied a team-high five blocks.

Freshman outside hitter Esmee Priem saw her first extended play of the season and recorded eight kills and 16 digs for GCU.

Sophomore libero Teagan DeFalco led the Lopes with 23 digs while sophomore setter Molly Feldmeth had 41 assists and 20 digs.

"After the third set, we talked about applying pressure from the service line," Lopes head coach Tim Nollan said. "We hadn't been as good as I thought we could be. We also changed our defensive matchups a little bit to see if we could do a better job. We responded well on both counts."

It was a tough start for the Lopes, who were coming off a disappointing Friday night loss to Delaware. GCU dropped the first set to Marist as the Red Foxes recorded seven of their 10 blocks.

The Lopes took command in the second set with a 15-9 lead. GCU led by as many as nine points and cruised to the 25-16 win. Matthews helped the Lopes hit at a .286 team mark after they had hit with a negative percentage in the opening set.

In the third set, GCU was down by three points but a 4-0 run pushed the Lopes ahead 11-10 after a Marist error. Neither squad could gain a two-point edge as the score wound up tied at 20-20. Marist took a 22-20 lead after an ace. A kill by Moss pulled GCU within 23-22 but Marist pulled out the win at 25-22.

A six-point service run by sophomore libero Alyssa Chisholm gave the Lopes an early 13-6 lead in the fourth set. GCU tallied four blocks and six aces in the set and won easily 25-14.

GCU scored the first five points of the final set and never looked back. Chisholm served up her fifth ace of the match to give the Lopes a 9-2 edge. Priem put down the final kill for the 15-7 win.

After posting a 2-1 mark in three consecutive tournaments, GCU improved to 6-3 this season and will head next week to the Maverick Invitational at Texas-Arlington.