Two wins secure weekend sweep

Sunday, February 23

San Jose, Calif.

11 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Santa Clara

Photo by: Sofia Jerez

2/23/2020 7:04:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

Lopes go 4-0 on opening weekend

By: Sierra Smith

SAN JOSE, Calif. — To close out the weekend, the No. 14th ranked Grand Canyon beach volleyball team added two more wins to its campaign with victories over Santa Clara 5-0 and San Jose State 5-0 on Sunday. The Lopes did not lose a single set today.

"It was great to see our team compete this weekend," head coach Kristen Rohr said. "We played some really solid, well coached teams and were happy with how we responded. Throughout the entire weekend, I was really pleased with the consistency of our top five teams."

Lopes down Santa Clara 5-0

Each of the five pairs swept every set against the Broncos.

The match began with the second and fourth pairs, where junior senior partners Jessica Stansfield and Hannah Towne won on Court 2 in two sets (21-14, 21-12) and junior Natalie Honzovicova and sophomore Katie Hess won 21-13 in both sets on Court 4.

On Court 5, junior Taylor Jarzombek and sophomore Madi Relaz clinched the dual win with scores of 21-7 and 21-11.

The No. 1 pair of junior Bella Bauman and sophomore Teagan DeFalco made it a 4-0 GCU lead winning in 21-14 in both sets.

Sophomore Anaya Evans and junior Katie Sarber secured the Lopes sweep winning 21-15 in the first set and 21-19 in the second set.

Lopes beat host San Jose State 5-0

The second and fourth pairs gave GCU a 2-0 lead in its next match against host San Jose State. Stansfield and Towne won 21-12, 28-26, at Court 2 while Honzovicova and Hess won on Court 4 21-14 and 21-11.

The third pair for the Lopes secured the 3-0 lead for GCU as Evans and Sarber won 21-10 in the first two sets.

Jarzombek and Relaz won 21-14 in each of the first two sets on Court 5.

On Court 1, Bauman and DeFalco won 21-16 and 21-15, which gave the Lopes the complete 5-0 sweep over the Spartans.

"We have a couple days to get some rest and get back in the sand before we head to Hilton Head for a strong tournament," Rohr said.

Up next, the Lopes head to Hilton Head, South Carolina for a tough weekend against some top-ranked opponents. GCU will play No. 2 Florida State, College of Charleston, No. 4 USC and No. 13 South Carolina.

For live match updates, follow the Lopes on Twitter and Instagram at @GCU_Beach.