Lopes fall short on Senior Night

Saturday, April 6

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 P.M.

Grand Canyon

13-15, 3-9

Stanford

15-10, 6-6

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Stanford	25	25	25	3
Grand Canyon	20	14	21	0

4/6/2019 8:45:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

GCU set as No. 6 seed in MPSF playoffs after loss to No. 9 Stanford

By: Alex Nash

On a night honoring seniors, the Grand Canyon men's volleyball team fell in straight sets to No. 9 Stanford by scores of 25-20, 25-14 and 25-21.

Outside hitter Will Schwob and middle blocker Alex Shmelev were recognized before the match. Although they didn't get the winning result, the duo led their team in their final appearance in Antelope Gym.

Schwob led the Lopes attack with nine kills on a .294 hitting percentage. On the other side, Shmelev led the defense with four blocks bringing his season total to 108 which is fourth-most in a single season in program history.

As a team, the Cardinal (15-10, 6-6) led in almost every category. The Lopes (13-15, 3-9) had the edge in blocks and held Stanford to a .288 hitting percentage. The strong defensive effort marks the 21st time GCU has held an opponent under their season hitting percentage average.

The match started in GCU's favor with a 5-1 first set lead after freshman outside hitter Christian Janke landed an ace and sophomore opposite David Kisiel followed with a kill. Stanford responded after a stream of service errors from both sides and used a 3-0 run to cut the Lopes lead down to 9-8. Two errors and two points had the score at 11-10 in favor of the Lopes before Kisiel added on with another kill. The two sides played some back and forth until Stanford used an ace to take its first lead of the match at 14-13. The Lopes secured the next two behind a Schwob kill and a Kisiel ace, but momentum did not stay long. The visitors secured seven of the next nine points and used that swing to close things out.

Set 2 started out neck-and-neck thanks to kills and blocks from the senior duo of Shmelev and Schwob. With the score at 8-7 in Stanford's favor, the Cardinal used another run to gain some ground. Stanford had a 14-9 advantage when GCU used its first timeout and Kisiel came out swinging, landing a kill to try and get the Lopes back on track. However, Stanford was determined to keep the pressure on and landed the next four points. A consistent attack and strong defense made sure that the Lopes were limited to just four more points as Stanford took a 2-0 match advantage.

Opposite from the first set, the third had Stanford up 5-1 and forced GCU into an early timeout. The Lopes came out with some new faces as sophomore outside hitter Trevor Weary teamed up with junior middle blocker Caleb Blazer for a block following a Cardinal error to bring the score to 5-3. An 8-2 Stanford run followed and GCU could not catch up. Sophomore setter Onur Cukur started the set and had an impact on defense, pairing up with Shmelev on two separate occasions for blocks, one of which brought the score to 17-10.

The Lopes showed life late and it was sparked by none other than the seniors. With Stanford at match point, Schwob went up and landed a kill to make things 24-18. The outside hitter then went back to the service line and headed a run. A Cardinal error was followed by a strong solo block from Shmelev and the Lopes defense followed up by forcing Stanford into another costly error. The score sat at 24-21 with momentum in the Lopes corner but Stanford was able to pull it together and land the last point and match.

The MPSF Playoffs are on deck with GCU locked in at the No. 6 seed. After Saturday's results, the Lopes will travel to Los Angeles to face the third-seeded USC Trojans in the quarterfinals.