Road run begins at UTRGV, NMSU

Thursday, October 10

Edinburg, Texas

5 p.m.

Grand Canyon

UT Rio Grande Valley

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10/9/2019 9:30:00 AM | Volleyball

Lopes start stretch of 4 straight away games

By: Sarah Woodward


Grand Canyon Lopes (13-3, 3-1 WAC)	vs	UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros (8-10, 2-2 WAC)	New Mexico State Aggies (13-3, 4-0 WAC)
		Thursday, Oct. 10 5 p.m. (Phoenix time)	Saturday, Oct. 12 Noon (Phoenix time)
Match Notes		Live Video Live Stats Tickets	Live Video Live Stats

The Grand Canyon women's volleyball team begins a four-game road stand this weekend, starting on Thursday night at UT Rio Grande Valley. The Lopes then head to Las Cruces, N.M. on Saturday to face off against WAC-leading New Mexico State.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

KNOTTED TRIO: The Lopes are in a three-way tie in the conference standings for second place at 3-1 with Kansas City and Utah Valley. Of the three, GCU is the only team with a winning overall record, as Kansas City is 7-7 and Utah Valley is 6-10.
ON THE BLOCK: Sophomore Kaira Moss is one solo block away from tying the GCU Division I record of 27, as the middle blocker has nine solo blocks on the season to rank second for the Lopes. Junior outside hitter Yeny Murillo leads GCU with 10.
SETS LIVE: Freshman setter Klaire Mitchell ranks second in the WAC with 9.40 assists per set, and has established herself as a versatile player on the court. Mitchell is second for GCU in blocking with 33 on the season and also has 59 kills and 10 service aces to add to her team-best 583 assists.

SCOUTING

UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY kicked off the season with a pair of wins over Bethune-Cookman and Houston Baptist in a 2-1 showing at the Barcelona Sports Invitational. The Vaqueros downed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the South Texas Showdown before a 1-2 outing at the UTSA Classic with a single win over Maryland.

UTRGV beat Northwestern State before losing three straight matches. The losing streak was broken up by a win over Texas Southern before the Vaqueros lost two straight matches to Washington State and Houston Baptist.

In WAC play, UTRGV is 2-2 with wins over Seattle U and California Baptist and losses to Utah Valley and New Mexico State.

NEW MEXICO STATE opened the season on a six-game win streak with victories over Butler, Auburn, Tennessee State, Pacific, New Mexico and UTEP. The Aggies suffered their first loss of the season in three sets to Portland before closing out the NM State Springhill Suites Invitational with a pair of wins against Grambling State and Lamar.

NMSU has its worst pre-conference showing at the Wildcat Classic, as the Aggies defeated Alabama State and lost to Sacramento State and Arizona.

The Aggies are the only undefeated team in WAC play at 4-0 with wins over Utah Valley, Seattle U, UT Rio Grande Valley and California Baptist. Two of NMSU's WAC wins have come in three-set sweeps while the other two were four-set victories.

LAST TIME OUT

GCU earned its second-ever victory over Seattle U with a three-set sweep at GCU Arena.
The Lopes' five-game win streak ended with a four-set loss to Utah Valley in Phoenix. The Lopes have never beaten the Wolverines in Division I.
Freshman setter Klaire Mitchell tallied 46 assists against UVU for the second most assists in a four-set match of any player in GCU Division I history.