Beat-up Lopes fall in 5 to red-hot Titans

Saturday, September 17

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

6-5,0-0WAC

Cal State Fullerton

6-2,0-0Big West

Cal St. Fullerton

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Zach Campbell

9/17/2022 10:40:00 PM | Volleyball, Paul Coro

Box Score

Parrott's 23-kill, 17-dig, 4-ace effort highlight GCU's revised lineup

By: Paul Coro

There will be moments in the conference season when the Grand Canyon women's volleyball team looks back at this rough stretch and realizes how it made them better to test young talent and take tough losses.

But on a night like Saturday at GCU Arena, it is difficult for the Lopes to see the good that will come of Cal State Fullerton rallying to beat them 23-25, 25-27, 25-18, 25-21, 15-9 for its fifth consecutive win.

The Lopes (6-5) are hurting from a four-match losing streak, including three in which GCU won the first two sets, and a rash of injuries. That injury list includes two of last year's top three scorers, graduate middle blocker Annabelle Kubinski and junior outside hitter Ashley Lifgren, as well as senior setter Klaire Mitchell, junior outside hitter Georgia Turri and graduate outside hitter Megan Taflinger, who is averaging a team-best 3.84 kills per set this season.

Kubinski, a Preseason All-WAC pick, has spent the season in rehabilitation while Lifgren tried to contribute Saturday but was extremely limited and Mitchell also played hurt but split setting duties.

"When we're not playing our best lineups with injuries and we've got kids playing new positions and we're playing a lineup we never practiced, we make silly mistakes," Nollan said. "We were lucky to win the first two sets the way we did. We didn't catch those breaks at the end, but we didn't create our own luck at the end either. We really need to get five people off the injured list."

Despite that, GCU took the 1-0 lead on Saturday night in a set that stayed within two points after a Mitchell ace gave the Lopes an 8-5 lead. After falling behind 13-11, two kills from graduate outside hitter Melanie Brecka's season-high tying 17 kills combined with two aces by freshman outside hitter Tatum Parrott for a 4-0 run.
The Lopes finished the 25-23 set on a 3-0 run with two Brecka kills sandwiched around the team's first block by sophomore McKenzie Wise.

"It doesn't help that we have a lot of people injured, but I still think we came together in the first two sets and that showed what GCU volleyball is," Wise said. "Coming soon, we need to practice more on the new routes with the new setter and new pin. We have the accessibility to play good with anybody, so we just have to get in rhythm with them. We've got this."

GCU had a better second set, other than relinquishing six points of Cal State Fullerton's first 14 points on service errors. Wise, Parrott and junior outside hitter Hope Hanak-Harper connected on consecutive kills to take momentum and a 19-17 lead. The set tied at 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 before Brecka and Wise kills off Mitchell assists gave GCU the set and a 2-0 match lead.

Cal State Fullerton (6-2) too command of the third set, with GCU mustering to gain back some momentum with a late 5-0 run before falling 25-18.

The Lopes made a 4-0 run in the fourth set to tie the score at 15-15 on junior setting Ava Mason's serving. The Titans never trailed again for a 25-21 set win that evened the match.

Parrott, a Phoenix Greenway High School graduated, delivered five of kills in the fourth set and wound up setting season highs for kills (23), digs (17) and services aces (4) with .321 hitting.

"Tatum Parrott had a great night," Nollan said. "She stepped up and scored a ton of points. We have to get better at the defensive system with just being out of position a lot, but offensively Tatum and Mel had a great night. But there's got to be more than just two."

The Lopes took a 6-4 lead in the deciding fifth set after two more Parrott kills and blocks from Parrott and senior middle blocker Hannah Eskes. Cal State Fullerton then went on a 6-0 run and scored 11 of the match's final 14 points to win.

"We've just got mentally be a little bit stronger, but we'll get there," Wise said. "We're always there for each other. Klaire (Mitchell) led us really well when she came back in the game. We just need to flush it and we'll have a next game."

The schedule turns to WAC play with GCU starting at Seattle U on Thursday before returning home to face conference newcomer UT Arlington on Saturday at 1 p.m. in GCU Arena.

"It's time to step up and start stringing some Ws together," Nollan said. "This gave some kids some experience that they maybe they wouldn't have had otherwise, and so hopefully that pays dividends later. You don't know what this is going to do for us later. Maybe it's a kid who has that experience and can step in a big moment in conference or the conference tournament and we get a W out of it.

"I wish we could have played the nonconference schedule healthy because I think you would've really seen a dramatic difference in results."