Lopes grab 3rd win vs. top-10 team

Sunday, February 23

Phoenix, Ariz.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

12-3,4-1MPSF

Pepperdine

6-5,3-2MPSF

Pepperdine

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Mathew McGraw

2/23/2020 5:38:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

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GCU defeats No. 6 Pepperdine in 4 sets at home

By: Cassidy Mace

The No. 13 Grand Canyon men's volleyball team matched its highest-ranked win in program history on Sunday with a four-set win over No. 6 Pepperdine, its second win against a top-10 opponent this weekend at GCU Arena.

The victory marks the Lopes' first win against a top-six team since Jan. 29, 2017, against then-No. 6 Lewis. GCU (12-3, 4-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) took down the Waves 17-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-27.

Freshman outside hitter Camden Gianni led the Lopes with 19 kills, topping the career high he set on Friday in a 3-1 win over No. 8 UCLA. GCU has beaten three top-10 opponents this month, starting with then-No. 9 Stanford.

"We passed really well to get everyone in system," Gianni said. "It was definitely a balanced offense. Christian (Janke) had 16 kills right behind me. So it was definitely really nice to have that balanced offense. Heath (Hughes) was distributing really well; his sets were on. Cole (Udall) was passing the ball a lot; I mean we were digging everything. It definitely made a lot of opportunities a little bit easier than they usually are."

Janke, a sophomore outside hitter, led the team in digs at 10 and recorded two assists in addion to his 16 kills to earn MPSF Player of the Night honors. GCU junior middle blocker Ian McLain finished the match with five blocks, four solo and one assist. Hughes, a sophomore setter, recorded 44 assists, three digs, one kill and one block assist against Pepperdine (6-5, 3-2 MPSF).

"I like the confidence that we're starting to build," Lopes head coach Matt Werle said. "It's interesting that things that worked really well for us against UCLA, we didn't use those things tonight to beat Pepperdine. Christian from the service line wasn't the same as he was the other night, which is fine. Other guys stepped up. Hugo wasn't great offensively, but he blocked balls and he made some plays. Getting these guys to play the entire game and understand that just because you might be average in one skill that night, you can still be great in everything else.

"I'm happy that we made some changes. In the first set, we did not execute the scouting report at all, and it showed. We got off to a slow start against UCLA, got off to another slow start tonight and just started to pick it up. I'm super proud of them."

The Lopes dropped the first set to the Waves, keeping it close up to a 20-17 deficit. Pepperdine pulled ahead with a five-point run to close the set 25-17.

"They fought really hard," Gianni said. "They came out definitely swinging really hard. Their block was a lot better than we thought in the first set. We did the exact same thing on Friday against UCLA. We need to figure out a way to win in that first set, but other than that we made some really good adjustments. We came together as a team in the second, third and fourth set and got it done. It was a great team win today."

GCU pulled ahead with a win in the second set, pulling ahead with a four-point run to go up 20-17. Pepperdine stayed close but the Lopes were able to take the win 25-22. Janke led the team with four kills and sophomore middle blocker Kyle Thompson recorded three. McLain made two solo blocks and hit .667 with two kills and no errors in the set.

"Our serve receive was really good tonight," Werle said. "They didn't put a ton of pressure on us. They mixed in some things that we hadn't seen them do. They caught us off-guard a couple times but, for the most part, we were in system. Heath didn't set the middle very well, considering what we had with our serve receive game, but we picked on their matchups offensively. Obviously, with a smaller setter, we exposed it, similar to what we did against Stanford and our outsides went off."

The third set was another close one with 16 tied scores and six lead changes. Pepperdine posed a threat with a 23-23 tie before the Lopes closed it out with a kill from Gianni and a Waves attacking error. Gianni recorded seven kills in the set to lead the team.

GCU hit its stride in the fourth set, leading by as many as eight points. Pepperdine stayed in the game, trailing 20-16 before the Lopes went on a four-point run with Gianni at the service line. McLain put up a big block to set up match point at 24-16. Pepperdine took one more point before the Lopes sealed the win with a kill from sophomore opposite Hugo Fischer.

Gianni and Janke each recorded six kills in the fourth set to help the team to its match-best .481 hitting. The Lopes also recorded five solo blocks in the set wth two by McLain and Janke, Thompson and Fischer each recording one.

"I'm super confident about what we can do when we play well," Werle said. "But when we're not playing well, I know that there isn't a lot of room for error for us. So, we've got to make sure that we take every match as that's the only focus at that time. We need to not think too far ahead and just keep playing confident, taking aggressive swings and not playing soft games."

The Lopes are back on the road next weekend to take on Concordia Irvine and No. 6 UC Irvine. GCU plays the Eagles on Thursday and the Anteaters on Friday, both starting at 8 p.m. (Phoenix time).