GCU tames Cougars at home

Thursday, October 24

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

17-4,7-2WAC

Chicago State

4-19,0-9WAC

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Chicago St.	19	16	25	15	1
Grand Canyon	25	25	22	25	3

10/24/2019 8:21:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Lopes hit .306 in 4-set match, remain tied for 2nd

By: Sarah Woodward

The Grand Canyon women's volleyball team returned to GCU Arena with a win over Chicago State on Thursday night, as the Lopes downed the Cougars 25-19, 25-16, 22-25 and 25-15. The match was the first at home for the Lopes since Oct. 5.

"It was a good team win tonight," said GCU head coach Tim Nollan, whose team set up a Saturday second-place showdown with Kansas City at home. "Hitting .306 as a team was good for us. I'm especially proud of our two outsides (senior Melody Horton and junior Yeny Murillo), who only had four combined errors."

Horton led the charge on offense for the Lopes with 15 kills on .279 hitting and completed a double-double with 11 digs.

Sophomore middle blocker Kaira Moss added 11 kills on team-best .529 hitting along with five blocks. Fellow sophomore middle blocker Annabelle Kubinski tallied 13 kills on .346 hitting and six block assists while Murillo added 14 kills on .394 hitting with five blocks.

Sophomore libero K.J. Adams led the Lopes back row with a career-best 24 digs while freshman setter Klaire Mitchell tallied a double-double with 42 assists and 18 digs.

GCU (17-4, 7-2 WAC) and CSU (4-19, 0-9) traded points in the first set before the Lopes pulled away to win 25-19. Kubinski led GCU with four kills.

The Lopes started the second set on a 5-1 run and saw eight kills from Moss in the first 13 points of the set. GCU surged ahead and won 25-16 after six kills from Horton paired with eight from Murillo.

Chicago State challenged the Lopes in the third with their first three-point lead at 7-4. The Cougars went ahead by as many as seven points before GCU cut it to a two-point game, trailing 22-20. CSU closed it out for a 25-22 third-set win.

GCU began the final set on a 6-2 run, forcing a Chicago State timeout. Five blocks from Murillo helped the Lopes to their largest lead of 11 points, setting up GCU to close out the match wtih a 25-15 set win.

The Lopes return to GCU Arena on Saturday for a Block Out Breast Cancer match against Kansas City at 3 p.m.