Lopes win 1st WAC title

Saturday, November 18

Orem, Utah

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

23-7,13-3WAC

Stephen F. Austin

29-4,16-0WAC

Grand Canyon

SFA

11/18/2023 9:30:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

GCU ends top seed SFA's 18-match win streak, advances to program's 1st NCAA tournament

By: Adrianna Candelaria

OREM, Utah — The Grand Canyon women's volleyball team won its first WAC Tournament championship and punched an NCAA tournament ticket by ending top seed Stephen F. Austin's 18-match winning streak with a 3-1 victory Saturday night at Lockhart Arena.

"I'm so proud of this team for this moment," Lopes eight-year head coach Tim Nollan said. "We've been working since August to win a championship, and to see this from start to finish is just impressive. It shows their maturity, and how great our leadership is. We had some big time performances today, and I am really proud of how everyone contributed to helping the team achieve this goal."

Nollan has gone 95-35 (.731) in his last five seasons with graduate setter Klaire Mitchell, who followed being named a three-time WAC Setter of the Year with winning WAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player. Mitchell recorded 49 assists and a career-high 25 digs un the final match, giving her 116 assists (11.6 per set) and 40 digs during the tournament.

"I'm honestly in shock," Mitchell said. "We've been battling for five years. I'm just so grateful for such a special group to pull it out. We had so much fight in us all weekend. We played so clean. I'm just so proud of them.

"My team was feeling it. I could tell they all were high-energy. That's my job, just to give them a good ball, and they get to kill it."

GCU outside hitters Tatum Parrott (sophomore) and Ashley Lifgren (senior) joined Mitchell on the all-tournament team as well by each recording double-doubles. Parrott set a GCU Division I-era record with 30 kills for 32.5 points, in addition to 19 digs. Lifgren contributed 13 kills and 13 digs on the match. Parrott and Lifgren hit .357 and .215, respectively, during the tournament and averaged 6.2 and 2.8 kills per set.

The Lopes tied their single-match season high of 15 total blocks, previously set in October in a victory over Seattle U. Lifgren and junior middle blocker Trista Strasser led the way with six block assists apiece.

"Parrott and Lifgren had bigtime contributions, especially in a championship match," Nollan said. "I was also very proud of our serve receive tonight. Our passers did a really great job holding up to the pressure. (junior outside hitter McKenzie) Wise and (sophomore libero Tatum) Thomas had great passing nights for us. I was just really impressed with the ball control piece of the game."

Thomas notched 21 digs while Wise had nine digs, contributing to the Lopes single-match season high of 107 digs. Thomas also posted seven assists, as Wise tallied two assists and a service ace.

Stephen F. Austin (29-4) had the nation's sixth-longest active winning streak at 18 consecutive victories, including a 16-0 mark in WAC regular-season play and two conference tournament wins before GCU (23-7) defeated the Ladyjacks. The Lopes fell to Stephen F. Austin in two regular-season meetings, but GCU emerged victorious when the stakes were highest to win 25-18, 20-25, 29-27, 25-18, against the No. 37 team in NCAA Ratings Percentage Index.

The second-seeded Lopes opened tournament play with consecutive sweeps, defeating No. 7 seed California Baptist 3-0 on Thursday and No. 3 seed UT Rio Grande Valley 3-0 on Friday.

"We knew we had lots of talent and lots of skill but to be able to put it all together in a championship tournament, playing three quality opponents back-to-back-to back and capping it off with a four-set championship win over a really good SFA team is just a really great moment for my staff and myself," Nollan said.

GCU started out strongly with a 4-1 lead in the first set, featuring two kills by junior outside hitter Stella Gkiourda, an SFA error and a Parrott service ace. Followed by four consecutive Ladyjack points to fall behind 5-4, the Lopes went on a 3-0 run to retake the lead. Tied at 10-10, the Lopes got a side-out for five unanswered points, with two Parrott kills, a Parrott solo block, a Lifgren kill and a service ace by Wise.

GCU built a seven-point lead on a three-point stretch of a Lifgren kill, a kill by junior middle blocker Alissa Uhlenhop and a block by Lifgren and Uhlenhop to have multiple set points at 24-17. Lifgren closed the set with an additional kill.

After Stephen F. Austin bounced back to even the match at 1-1, the Lopes notched the first two points of the third set on a Parrott kill and a block by Parrott and Strasser. After GCU developed a 7-4 lead, SFA scored seven consecutive points to pull ahead 11-8. When the Lopes reached 24-21, the GCU bench was jumping up and down, ready to celebrate another set win, but SFA tied the set with three straight point. The teams went back and forth to 27-27, when GCU took the lead on an SFA error and clinched the set on another Lifgren kill at 29-27. The third frame featured 11 ties and four lead changes.

Hungrier than ever, the Lopes strung together five unanswered points on three Ladyjack errors, a Lifgren kill and Gkiourda kill for a 7-2 statement in the fourth set. Holding strong, GCU punched out a nine-point lead after two Parrott kills took its lead to 22-14 and a Strasser solo block widened it to 23-14. The Lopes clinched the WAC Tournament championship on one more Mitchell assist and Parrott kill.

"It feels great to win," Nollan said. "I'm so proud of this team and the seniors to be able to close out their careers with a title. The goal for us is to win every year and we don't shy away from that. I'm glad we got it done this year, I'm going to enjoy the moment, and begin prepping for what we hope can be a nice long NCAA tournament run."

GCU will await its first-ever tournament pairing when the NCAA holds its Selection Show on Sunday, Nov. 26, at 4 p.m. (Phoenix time) on ESPNU. The first round of the NCAA tournament runs Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.