Lopes fall to UTEP in home exhibition

Saturday, August 20

Phoenix, Ariz.

12 p.m.

Grand Canyon

UTEP

8/20/2022 3:53:00 PM | Volleyball

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5-set match preps GCU for regular season

By: Adrianna Candelaria

Grand Canyon faced a challenging day in GCU Arena, as UTEP swept the Lopes at the exhibition match.

Despite losing 5-0 on Saturday, the first three sets were all within reach at 25-22, 27-25 and 27-25, before both teams turned to their benches and allowed other athletes shots on the floor. The Miners also won the final two sets 25-16 and 15-13.

"I thought today was good for our team; we got to see a bunch of different lineups and we got to experiment with our offensive system a little bit," Lopes head coach Tim Nollan said. "We do need to get better at managing some errors, but this exhibition really gives us an opportunity to see stats and film on everyone and just work on those critical areas we feel like we have room for improvement on before we head off to Montana State next weekend."

The Lopes entered the match with a 3-4 record against the Miners after falling short during the 2021 preseason (0-3), but they came out on top during the regular season (3-1) last year. If history tells us anything, it's that the Lopes will return to this matchup with a vengeance.

"I'm excited to get the season underway," Nollan said. "Anytime you end the year like we did last year, losing the conference championship, you wanna get back on the court and play, get that feeling out and get that first victory under your belt. I'm really looking forward to this group. I'm really excited about the talent we have and I'm looking forward to watching us grow throughout a tough nonconference schedule and into WAC play."