Experience spurs No. 6 GCU to surpass '22 success

When the Grand Canyon beach volleyball team's historic season ended abruptly in the NCAA tournament's first round last May, the Lopes put a bookmark for the point they reached in their story and have not been able to turn the page since then.

Eight Lopes return from a season that reached a GCU-best No. 7 national ranking to be parts of this week's 10-player, season-opening lineup that starts writing the next chapter with a No. 6 preseason ranking.

Kristen Rohr Action

"We definitely feel like we have unfinished business from last year," said eighth-year GCU head coach Kristen Rohr, the reigning American Volleyball Coaches Association's Coach of the Year.

A Lopes lineup of eight upperclassmen or graduates joins two sophomores to try to top last season's feats, which included a program record for wins (26) that doubled the total of four years earlier.

GCU defeated 12 top-20 opponents last season and has matches scheduled this season with 13 teams in the preseason top 20. That slate includes Friday dual matches against No. 4 USC, the two-time defending national champion, and No. 14 Long Beach State in Los Angeles.

"This is the most experienced we've ever been," Rohr said. "We literally have four pairs that could be in the top of our lineup. Going to nationals last year but not finishing how we wanted was a great experience for them to feel that kind of pressure. We're super-excited to compete and who we get to play opening weekend."

The Lopes ranked No. 7 for 10 consecutive weeks last season to earn their first at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, where they lost 3-2 to No. 10 Georgia State with the swing match going three sets and being decided in extra points.

Juniors Allanis Navas and Allison Hansen stay together as a key pairing after they went 28-4 last season, which helped land them land two of the 10 spots on Coastal Collegiate Sports Association's Presason All-Conference Team.

"They keep improving physically and skillwise, but their biggest jump this year is how much they've grown mentally," Rohr said.

Hansen and Navas earned an AVCA Top Flight Award, as did Dana Roskic and Cami Sanchez. Roskic, a graduate, now teams with junior Krista Rowan while Sanchez, also a graduate, pairs with senior Anaya Evans.

"Krista is someone who every single year gets better and better," Rohr said of the native of nearby Chandler. "She has put so much into her strength and conditioning since her freshman year. She's added 5 inches to her vertical leap. Any time we give her something to work on, when she comes back, she's either perfected it or you can tell she's been really cognizant about focusing on that.

Anaya Evans

"Anaya works hard and gives 110% every day. She has some really high goals for college and wants to play for Team England. She and Cami look really good together."

Rowan and Evans have been the team leaders in voice and action, but the team has not lacked for motivation. The internally competitive lineup battled to be among the two pairs that went to AVCA Fall Beach Championships, where Hansen and senior Abbie Hughes finished third and sophomore Samaya Morin joined Roskic to finish 10th among 64 pairs.

This season, Hughes and Morin team up and the lineup's newcomers, senior Mackenzie Harris and sophomore Jessica Drake, comprise the final pairing. Drake redshirted last season and was one of six players named to the CCSA Watch List, while Harris did not crack the GCU lineup after transferring from Abilene Christian.

"They w

orked really hard this summer, and they've come a long way," Rohr said of Drake and Harris. "They were similar to what we had in Dana and Cami last year, where they are just super good at ball control and scrappy. We're working on expanding their game, as far as being small ball-control players who tire people out."

The Lopes will learn a lot about where they stand in this season's national landscape with their first 12 dual matches coming in trips to Los Angeles (twice) and Tampa, Florida, over three weekends. Eight of those 12 opponents are fellow top-15 teams.

This also marks GCU's first season as a conference member. The Lopes joined the CCSA, which has five of its six members ranked in the preseason top 10. Having that postseason conference tournament and its automatic NCAA tourney berth will create an additional pathway for the Lopes to reach the 16-team NCAA tournament.

"You can tell how much everybody wants it," Rohr said. "We've worked really hard to build a program and keep bringing in athletes who are going to get us to a spot where we are competing for a national championship. A really big move for us is we're now in one of the toughest conferences in the country."

American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll
Rank	Team (first-place votes)	Points
1.	UCLA (12)	442
2.	Florida State (2)	420
3.	TCU (1)	408
4.	USC (8)	400
5.	LSU	350
6.	Grand Canyon	334
7.	Loyola Marymount	296
8.	Georgia State	271
9.	Stanford	247
10.	Hawaii	242
11.	California	233
12.	Florida Atlantic	224
13.	Cal Poly	222
14.	Long Beach State	153
15.	Stetson	137
16.	Florida International	117
17.	Pepperdine	79
18.	Arizona	78
19.	South Carolina	65
20.	Washington	55