Big wins progress Lopes toward giant leap

Tuesday, February 9

Phoenix, Ariz.

2:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

4-0,4-0WAC

Dixie State

3-4,2-4WAC

Dixie St.

Grand Canyon

2/9/2021 6:13:00 PM | Volleyball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Murillo resets program DI-era kills record in 2nd win vs. Dixie State

By: Paul Coro

There is no easing into this Grand Canyon women's volleyball season.

The season is barely more than two weeks old and the ultimate WAC test, defending conference champion New Mexico State, is waiting for GCU next week. The Lopes program that made massive improvement for a 24-6 season in 2019 is showing more progress toward its next desired step from contender to champion.

GCU headed that direction with a straight-set home win against Dixie State for the second straight day. Tuesday's 25-16, 25-17, 25-20 win made the Lopes the only 4-0 team in the conference besides New Mexico State, its first road opponent next Monday and Tuesday.

"We welcome the challenge," GCU head coach Tim Nollan said. "They are the reigning champion. It's theirs until somebody beats them. I think it's our job to understand that we're going to have to keep getting better. If you're going to take on the champion and you're going to be the contender, you have to play your A game. And you can't just do it once. You have to do it over and over again."

The Lopes have been consistently superior to start this season, winning 12 of 13 sets thus far.

The advancement is exemplified in GCU senior outside hitter Yeny Murillo, who broke the program's Division I-era record for kills in a three-set match twice this week. Murillo set a new mark with 18 kills in Monday's win and reset it Tuesday with 19 kills on .386 hitting.

Dixie State tried to take away the Lopes' strength in junior middle blockers Kaira Moss and Annabelle Kubinski and wound up being pounded from the pins. Murillo took advantage immediately with seven kills and a block on GCU's first 20 points.

"If we don't have a good pass, the setters can't set and I'm not going to be able to hit well," said Murillo, the Colombia native. "I think the team is doing a great job is the reason why my stats can look that good.

"It's been a long time without competition. I really wanted it so bad that it's showing. All the effort that we put into practice is showing right now during the games."

Murillo led GCU in kills in 2019 after transferring from Arizona Western, but Nollan said she is reaching another level this season. She entered Tuesday ranked fourth nationally for kills per set (5.4) because of her improved comfort with the game speed and the increased power she developed with Lopes Director of Sports Performance Gabe Bourland.

Dixie State went 42-14 in its previous two seasons at Division II, but was overmatched by GCU this week. Outside of service errors, the Trailblazers scored 32 points in three sets as Lopes senior libero K.J. Adams made 17 digs. She entered the day ranked third in the nation with 6.5 digs per set.

"Yeny had a fantastic match," Nollan said. "Sarah (Hagge) had a great match with zero hitting errors and she hit in the .400s (six kills on 13 attacks). By them clogging up the middle, it opened up our pins and our kids took care of business. Give credit to our passers to give us opportunities to at least have our middles threaten so they had to feel like they had stay on top of them."

GCU never trailed in any set with sophomore setter Klaire Mitchell controlling the offense with 31 assists and a career-high four service aces.

Despite only six days of practice and one hour of six-on-six scrimmaging, freshman Giorgia Turri of Italy made her Lopes debut this week and tallied 12 kills and 23 digs in the two wins combined.

"For her to come in and be as comfortable in the serve/receive pattern as she was and understanding the defense, she did a great job," Nollan said. "She's going to be really good. Get some more practice under her belt, some more six-on-six, some situational training."

The entire freshman class has been contributing with Mia Goulart starting each match for her strong serving and defense, Ashley Lifgren having 29 kills in the season-opening Tarleton sweep, Hope Hanak-Harper also making her debut this week and using two of her kills to help close out the first set Tuesday and Ava Mason making her third appearance Tuesday.

"It's been nice to watch this class come in and be able to contribute in our first four matches," Nollan said.

The Lopes bring speed and aggressive defense into next week's challenge to break an 11-match losing streak to the Aggies. Until these four wins in the past 16 days, GCU had not played since the 25-17, 25-23, 26-24 loss to New Mexico State in the 2019 WAC Tournament championship.

"There's a lot of seniors and we're giving everything we have," Murillo said. "We've been waiting so long for this opportunity so now we're just going to take the shot we've been waiting for."