No. 10 GCU travels to No. 1 BYU


Grand Canyon Lopes (1-1, 1-1 MPSF)	vs	BYU Cougars (3-1, 3-1 MPSF)
		Thursday, Feb. 18 & Saturday, Feb. 20 7 p.m. (Phoenix time) Smith Fieldhouse Provo, Utah
Match Notes		BYU Match Notes Thursday Live Stats Saturday Live Stats

The No. 10 Grand Canyon men's volleyball team travels to Provo, Utah, to kick off a four-match season series against No. 1 BYU. The Lopes take on the Cougars on the road on Thursday and Saturday before returning home to face BYU at GCU Arena the following week.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

RANKED: The Lopes earned their highest preseason ranking in program history, checking in at No. 10 in the National Volleyball Association/American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I-II Men's Preseason Poll. GCU has kept steady at No. 10 for all four weeks of the regular-season poll. The Lopes earned their highest final ranking at No. 11 last season, as well as hitting their highest overall ranking at No. 8 on Feb. 24.
PUTTING UP STATS: GCU is ranked in the top five nationally in six categories: second in assists per set (13.) and att2acks per set (31.5), third in kills per set (13.7) and fourth in blocks per set (2.9), digs per set (10.0), and hitting percentage (.328).
MPSF HONORS: The Lopes return all four of their Mountain Pacific Sports Federation postseason award winners from the 2020 squad. Outside hitter Camden Gianni earned GCU's first major MPSF award when he was named the MPSF Freshman of the Year, as well as being named to the All-MPSF second team and MPSF All-Freshmen team. Sophomore outside hitter Christian Janke joined him on the second team while senior Ian McLain, a middle blocker, and sophomore Hugo Fischer, an opposite, were named honorable mentions.

SCOUTING

No. 1 BYU holds its top spot in the NVA/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches poll for the fourth straight week. The Cougars are 3-1 this season with a current three-match winning streak after losing their season opener vs. UCLA. BYU went 1-1 with the Bruins in its first week of competition before taking back-to-back wins over Pepperdine on Feb. 12-13. Senior opposite Gabi Garcia Fernandez leads the team in kills per set (4.2), attacks per set (7.3), digs per set (1.9), points per set (5.0) and hitting percentage (.392).

In 2020, BYU finished 17-1 with its only loss coming in its last match against No. 1 Hawaii.

GCU dropped its last match to the Cougars at home, falling in straight sets on Feb. 14, 2020.

LAST TIME OUT

GCU split its first weekend of competition on the road, falling to No. 9 UCLA before defeating No. 12 Concordia.
The Lopes took down Concordia in straight sets on Jan. 30.

WHAT'S NEXT

GCU returns home to host BYU in two more matches on Feb. 25 and 27.

For more GCU men's volleyball news, notes and numbers, click here to view the match notes.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

SCOUTING

LAST TIME OUT

WHAT'S NEXT

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Hugo Fischer

Camden Gianni

Christian Janke

Ian McLain

Grand Canyon University Athletics