No. 1 delivers GCU’s 1st 2019 loss

Thursday, January 3

Santa Barbara, Calif.

9 P.M.

Grand Canyon

0-1

Long Beach State

1-0

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Grand Canyon	18	21	20	0
Long Beach State	25	25	25	3

Photo by: Gillian Rea

1/3/2019 11:07:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Defending national champ Long Beach State defeats 14th-ranked Lopes in straight sets

By: Alex Nash

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – No. 14 Grand Canyon began its 2019 campaign against the defending national champion, No.1 Long Beach State, at the UCSB Asics Invitational and fell in straight sets Thursday night.

In the first-ever meeting between the two teams, Long Beach State made sure to limit its mistakes and hit at a .507 mark while holding GCU to .188. The 49ers won 25-18, 25-21 and 25-20.

Freshman Christian Janke led the Lopes in kills (10) in his GCU debut while senior Will Schwob added nine kills, three digs and three blocks, which shared the team lead with Caleb Blazer. In his first start, setter Onur Cukur tallied 23 assists.

In addition to the .507 hitting percentage, Long Beach State led GCU in almost every category with 47 kills, five aces, 46 assists and 22 digs. GCU led in blocks, four to two.

The Beach had two players with double-digit kills as Kyle Ensing led all players with 14 and Simon Anderson added 11 more. TJ DeFalco (brother of GCU women's volleyball libero, Teagan DeFalco) added three aces and All-American setter Josh Tuaniga was good for 39 assists.

Blazer started 2019 with a big kill but the national champs responded, scoring six of the first eight points and forcing GCU into an early timeout. Service errors were evident early and often for Long Beach, tallying eight in the first set with one that brought the Lopes within two at the midway point of the set. The Lopes could not capitalize and a couple scoring runs mixed with a .680 hitting percentage led to a first set win for the No. 1 team.

Long Beach State started the second set hot with a kill and an ace out of the gate. Another early timeout had the Lopes in a similar position but the team was able to regroup and go on a run. Powered by Schwob, Janke and Long Beach errors, the Lopes trailed 21-20. Three players contributed kills as Long Beach State took four of the last five points of the set.

The third set was the most competitive as Alex Shmelev tied the match at five and the Lopes took a 7-6 lead off 49ers errors. However, seven of the next nine points went Long Beach's way and GCU had to regroup. DeFalco served up his third ace of the match to widen the lead to six before GCU made a late comeback attempt. Janke landed a kill and Long Beach State served another error but a long match point rally ended with an attack error to seal the three-set sweep.

GCU will play host school No. 10 UC Santa Barbara on Friday at 6:30 p.m. (Phoenix time). The match will be streamed live through UCSB's athletics website.