McLain ties school record in win

Saturday, January 18

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

3-2,0-0MPSF

UC San Diego

3-2,0-0Big West

UC San Diego

Grand Canyon

1/18/2020 10:13:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Lopes defeat UCSD in 4 sets at GCU Arena

By: Cassidy Mace

Grand Canyon men's volleyball middle blocker Ian McLain secured his spot in the GCU record book during Saturday night's four-set win over UC San Diego at GCU Arena.

The junior went 12 for 14 in kills with zero errors to tie for the program's individual match record hitting percentage at .857. The mark continues a record-breaking weekend for the Lopes, just one night after head coach Matt Werle became the winningest coach in GCU men's volleyball history in the Friday home opener. On Saturday night, the Lopes (3-2) took down UC San Diego (3-2) in a 25-20, 17-25, 25-22, 29-27 thriller.

"Everyone on the team was so energetic and in the right mindset," McLain said. "It really put each and every one of us in the right position to succeed. Luckily, I was feeling good tonight and ready to go. It's a big win for us so we've got to move on to the next tournament, but we'll enjoy this one while it lasts."

McLain's performance helped GCU to a team total of 54 kills, with three Lopes hitting in the double digits. Besides McLain, sophomore outside hitter Christian Janke hit 14 kills and freshman outside hitter Camden Gianni hit 13, along with four aces, six digs and a block. Sophomore opposite Hugo Fischer added career highs in three categories with seven kills, five digs and five blocks.

"It freed up our pins," Werle said. "All of our pins were pretty good. Hugo's kind of stepping into his own and burying balls. When you can get our middles going and our serve receive allowing us to get out middles going, it makes everyone else better. Ian is such a threat. We know Kyle (Thompson) is a big threat. So being able to get them the ball and establish that middle, it's only going to make everyone else better."

The first set established the tone for the match, with the Lopes and Tritons going point for point. The set stayed within two points up until UC San Diego took a 16-13 lead. The Tritons pushed their lead to 20-16 before the Lopes took over with a nine-point run to take the first set. Gianni led the push, serving three aces in the run, including an ace on set point.

UC San Diego took the second set, finishing on a 9-3 run to win 25-17.

The Lopes bounced back quickly in the third set, holding the lead from the first point until the Tritons pulled ahead 15-14. The teams battled back and forth until the Lopes pulled ahead with a 3-0 run to go up 23-20. Back-to-back points from UCSD put the pressure on, but the Lopes pushed through thanks to a kill from Janke and a bad set from the Tritons.

"The on-court flow is much better," Werle said. "There's still a lot of plays out there that were not taken care of, especially our free-ball offense isn't as clean as it should be. There are a lot of broken junk plays that there seems to be confusion where there should be more communication and more direction. And I think there needs to be concise direction, saying someone's name, 'Hey, this is your job to take care of this ball.' And just yelling at the guy or someone's name so they're just aware that, 'Hey this is my job, this is my responsibility and I need to take care of business.' "

The fourth set put GCU Arena fans on their feet going into extra points. The Lopes looked to be in the clear with a 21-18 lead before UCSD went on a four-point run to lead 22-21. The Lopes tied it up with a big kill from Thompson before the Tritons tacked on two more points on to go up 24-22. Thompson came through with another clutch kill, followed by another from Gianni to tie again at 24-24. A service error put the Lopes behind, but Gianni and McLain teamed up with a pair of kills to set up the first match point. Three straight errors between the teams put the match at 27-27 and McLain came through with another kill to set up another match point. Fisher and Thompson teamed up for a block and the 29-27 win.

"One of our goals is to protect the home court," Werle said. "And obviously UCSD is playing really well, what they did from the service line really put some pressure on us, but I think our serve receive was much better tonight than it has been. Our biggest issue right now is our service game. Obviously, we had way too many errors. That's something we need to take care of and keep emphasizing. One of our first game notes is always serve and pass. We took care of one side of that tonight."

After a 2-0 home weekend, the Lopes are set to compete in the Lindenwood Invitational in St. Charles, Missouri, next weekend. The Lopes take on McKendree in their first match on Friday at noon (Phoenix time).

"McKendree's a very good team," Werle said. "They've come up with some pretty big wins already this season. So we want to make sure that we're dialed in, but we also want to make sure that we're taking one team at a time."