Lopes split opening day at home

Friday, February 22

Phoenix, Ariz.

3 p.m.

Grand Canyon

New Mexico

2/22/2019 9:05:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

GCU takes down New Mexico 4-1, falls to No. 15 LMU

By: Cassidy Mace

Grand Canyon beach volleyball split two matches in a rainy season opener at GCU Beach Volleyball Stadium on Friday.

The No. 16 Lopes (1-1) came out strong with a win in their season opener, taking down New Mexico 4-1. Immediately following their match with the Lobos (0-1), the Lopes dived straight into the second competition of the night against No. 15 Loyola Marymount (1-0).

GCU and LMU went match for match, coming down to a third-set showdown between Mikala Raudsepp and Madi Relaz for the Lopes and Megan Nash and Emma Doud for the Lions. LMU won for the 3-2 match victory.

New Mexico
"Whenever you get into the early part of the season and you get to see another team on the other side of the net, there's always a lot of nerves that come with it," GCU head coach Kristen Rohr said. "Hosting, being at home with the crowd and all of that. I thought that was a really good win for us. You know, New Mexico had a couple really good teams that challenged us and made us pick up our game a little bit. So I thought to be able to pull out that 4-1 win was a great start for us."

GCU finished one court short of a sweep against the Lobos, securing wins on courts two through five. Hannah Towne and Anaya Evans pushed their first set to extra points, falling 23-21 in set one and 21-15 in set two.

Court two also featured a close matchup with Raudsepp and Relaz going into their first of two three-set matches of the day. The duo made a commanding start with a 21-10 first set but dropped the second set 21-18 before rebounding for a 15-6 win in set three.

Bella Bauman and Jessica Stansfield went undefeated on their first day of competition, starting the day with a 21-8, 21-8 win over the Lobos on court three. Courts four and five saw identical scores in the first competition of the day with Katie Sarber and Esmee Priem winning 21-15, 21-16, on court four and Jamie Walsh and Teagan DeFalco earning a win by the same score.

Loyola Marymount
"We knew LMU was going to be tough," Rohr said. "They played really well, and they're well coached. We definitely see things that we obviously need to improve on, but they played solid. I also saw some really good things from our girls. Some battling in spots and it's just stuff that we need moving forward into the rest of the season and into tomorrow (against Arizona State). So, we have to kind of recoup and be ready for tomorrow."

Courts three and five shined for the Lopes against the No. 15 Lions. Stansfield and Bauman locked in their second win of the season with a 21-15, 21-19 victory over LMU. DeFalco and Walsh also started their season off 2-0 with a 21-16, 21-19 win on court five.

Losses on courts one and three put the Lopes in a tough spot with the court two match going to three sets. The junior/freshman duo Towne and Evans suffered their second loss of the day to Loyola Marymount, falling 21-11, 21-17, to the Lions. Sarber and Priem split the day with a 21-18, 21-15 loss on court three.

All other courts had finished play before court two, featuring Relaz and Raudsepp for the Lopes and Doud and Nash for the Lions, had finished its second set. The first two sets finished within two points, with the Lopes taking set one 22-20 and the Lions set two 21-19. LMU got off to a strong 3-0 start in the final set before the Lopes rebounded to tie at 5-5. The duos continued back and forth until the Lions finally closed the set 15-11 to give LMU the 3-2 win.

Up Next
The Lopes return to GCU Beach Volleyball Stadium on Saturday for the first-ever competition between GCU and Arizona State. The match will be live-streamed here with first serve at 12:30 p.m.

RESULTS

# 16 GCU 4, New Mexico 1

Lauren Twitty / Dali Rosado (NM) def. Hannah Towne / Anaya Evans (GCU) 23-12, 21-15
Madi Relaz / Mikaela Raudsepp (GCU) def. Yasmin Tan / Makayla Tam (NM) 21-10, 18-21, 15-6
Jessica Stansfield / Bella Bauman (GCU) def. Emily Nenninger / Jaclyn Inclan (NM) 12-8, 21-8
Katie Sarber / Esmee Priem (GCU) def. Joey Benson / Carly Beddingfield (NM) 21-15, 21-16
Teagan DeFalco / Jamie Walsh (GCU) def. Claire Nenninger / Abbey Willison (NM) 28-26, 21-6
Taylor Jarzombek / Ava Elia (GCU) def. Morgan Schreckler (NM) / Micaela Mirabal (GCU) 21-14, 21-9

#16 GCU 2, #15 LMU 3

Reka Orsi Toth / Savannah Slattery (LMU) def. Hannah Towne / Anaya Evans (GCU) 21-11, 21-17
Megan Nash / Emma Doud (LMU) def. Madi Relaz / Mikaela Raudsepp (GCU) 22-20, 21-19, 15-11
Jessica Stansfield / Bella Bauman (GCU) def. Bo Culo / Megan Rice (LMU) 21-15, 21-19
Jessie Prichard / Sara Kovac (LMU) def. Katie Sarber / Esmee Priem (GCU) 21-18, 21-15
Teagan DeFalco / Jamie Walsh (GCU) def. Erin Martin / Veronica Nederend (LMU) 21-16, 21-19
Taylor Jarzombek / Ava Elia (GCU) def. Paige Panter / Sylvia Hernandez (LMU) 21-15, 2108