Lopes fall in Palo Alto

Thursday, February 21

Stanford, Calif.

8 P.M.

Grand Canyon

7-9, 0-4MPSF

Stanford

10-5, 3-2MPSF

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Grand Canyon	11	19	15	0
Stanford	25	25	25	3

Photo by: Gillian Rea

2/21/2019 9:29:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Stanford uses sweep to stop Lopes

By: Alex Nash

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The Grand Canyon men's volleyball team fell to 0-4 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play on Thursday night after dropping straight sets to No. 8 Stanford. Set scores were 25-11, 25-19 and 25-15.

After hitting their season high .373 against No. 5 Pepperdine a week ago, the Lopes (7-9) hit a season-worst .035 against the Cardinal (10-5). Stanford had the edge in every statistical category on the night.

Senior middle blocker Alex Shmelev was a bright spot for the Lopes, recording four kills and three blocks, one of which came solo. Senior outside hitter Will Schwob led GCU with six kills while freshman outside hitter Christian Janke was not far behind with five and a team-leading five digs.

The first set was all Stanford. Seven of the first 10 points went the home team's way, and the Lopes could not gain ground. A 6-0 run was the difference-maker, putting GCU in a 21-6 hole. The Lopes showed late life, but it would not be enough as they dropped the first set 25-11.

Heads did not hang in the second set as GCU came out swinging. The Lopes took an early 5-2 lead after a Shmelev kill. Stanford fought back to take the lead at 10-8, but Ian McLain teamed up with Scwhob for a block followed up by a Janke kill to tie the set for the third time. Just like in the first, a long Cardinal scoring run was all they needed. Stanford scored eight straight to take an 18-10 lead that carried them to a 25-19 second set victory.

After a promising second set, the third had a similar feeling to start after Shmelev landed the Lopes lone solo block. Much like the previous sets, Stanford looked to use a scoring run to put the match away but Shmelev would team up with Janke to put a stop to three straight points with the score reading 7-4.

Shortly after, Caleb Blazer entered the match for the first time since going down with a lower body injury on Jan. 20. Even with the addition of Blazer, a Stanford scoring run ensued. The Cardinal used five straight points to take a double-digit lead over the Lopes at 17-10. Back-to-back Janke kills closed the gap and Blazer landed on the stat sheet with a kill of his own. A Stanford ace ended the set and the match.

The Lopes are back in action on Saturday in Provo, Utah to take on No. 9 BYU. The match is set to start at 7 p.m. (Phoenix time).