Utah Valley climbs out of 2-0 hole to win at GCU

Thursday, October 24

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

13-8,6-3WAC

Utah Valley

15-6,6-3WAC

Utah Valley

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Wesley Kurz

10/24/2024 10:23:00 PM | Volleyball, Paul Coro

Box Score

Parrott records 29 kills, 1 shy of her program record for D-I era

By: Paul Coro

The fans at Global Credit Union Arena left full of entertainment from a five-set thriller Wednesday night, when the Grand Canyon women's volleyball team left with a lesson learned the hard way.

For the first time this season, GCU was stretched to a fifth set after winning the first two sets. Utah Valley, which had just rallied from two sets down to win its previous match, pulled off another reverse sweep Thursday night to defeating the Lopes 25-27, 11-25, 25-21, 25-20, 20-18.

"I love that when we're playing our best that we're able to beat a team as bad as we did in the second set," GCU head coach Kendra Potts said. "One, we've got to respect what they're going to try to do as an opponent. Two, our highs can be high, but our lows don't have to be so low. We can find this middle ground where we all play steady.

"When UVU made their pushes, we got tighter than we should have. We could do better at being in the point that we're in. Don't think too far behind. Don't think too far ahead."

Thursday's result spoiled a 29-kill performance by GCU junior outside hitter Tatum Parrott, who was one kill shy of the GCU Division I-era record that she set in last season's WAC Tournament championship match.

Parrott nearly sent the Lopes to victory by scoring their first five points of the fifth set and then serving the next two points for a 7-3 GCU lead. By the time Parrott returned to the front row, Utah Valley was leading 12-9.

Trista Strasser

The Lopes (13-8, 6-3 WAC) staved off two Wolverines match points at 14-12, with the tying point coming on freshman setter Taylor Kubacak's ace – her fourth among GCU's season-high 12 aces.

The Lopes fought off more match points at 15-14 and 16-15 with a Parrott sideways dig kill and senior middle blocker Trista Strasser's tap over a Utah Valley double block. A kill from senior outside hitter Ashley Lifgren gave GCU a match point at 17-16, but the Wolverines used their ninth ace for an 18-17 lead that a back-row Parrott kill wiped away.

Utah Valley (15-6, 6-3 WAC) closed the night where it flourished on the pins with junior outside hitter Avery Shewell's 24th kill giving the Wolverines a 20-18 fifth set and fifth consecutive victory. Utah Valley and GCU are now tied for second in the WAC with Utah Tech.

"They responded the same way they did against Cal Baptist on Saturday," Wolverines 26-year head coach Sam Atoa said of that 3-2 reverse sweep win. "They took ownership of their game. We weren't able to execute and capitalize. Things fell in place with what we felt we were good at, with the way we passed and slowed some balls down to convert."

Utah Valley actually had command of the first set, leading 17-11 until a 7-0 Lopes run that started with a Lifgren kill and continued on sophomore Bella Anderson's serve for the final six points. Anderson served consecutive aces for an 18-17 lead and Kubacak aced for a 24-20 lead.

The Wolverines fought off four match points and kept going for a 25-24 lead, but a Utah Valley error and kills by Lifgren and Parrott finished a 27-25 GCU first-set win.

The Lopes took that momentum to a dominant second set, when they busted open a 7-6 lead for a 25-11 rout. Strasser put down four kills and a block in the 18-5 finish that also included five Parrott kills.

"Grand Canyon's been very consistent with some of the things they've been doing throughout the season," Atoa said. "We needed to be better at that. We do some great things, but we need to do that on a consistent level. Those last three sets, we were doing that with the way we served and our offensive execution."

GCU led the third set 11-10, but Utah Valley turned more aggressive at the service line after not having an ace in the first two sets. The Wolverines scored four points on aces during a 9-3 stretch that might have been the match's most pivotal one.

The Lopes pulled within two points twice with one time coming on four consecutive Parrott points, but Utah Valley finished a 25-21 set to cut the GCU match lead to 2-1.

The Lopes led the fourth set for the last time at 3-2 despite only being outhit .170-.162. Shewell scored four of the last seven Utah Valley points for a 25-20 set win that evened the match at 2-2.

Tatum Parrott

Parrott, who hit .309, delivered eight kills and a block in the fourth set, but Utah Valley scored 15 of its 20 fourth-set points on kills to win.

"She has the full package," Atoa said of Parrott. "She's such a dynamic person and awesome teammate. Kids want to play with her because it's about others. When you do that, people are willing to play for you. She's that special kid that every coach wishes they had in their program."

GCU finished with 96 digs, 19 more than its season high and its second-highest digs total since 2019.

"There were a lot of glimmers," Potts said. "Sometimes when things get stressful, we go to what we call our default. Our default is going too fast and being too early so we can't get a good swing on it or we're setting a good tempo but go higher because we're nervous. We went into default mode, and it took too long to get out of it.

"I hate to learn this way, but I think we learned a good lesson tonight."

GCU continues WAC play against Southern Utah with a 2 p.m. match at Global Credit Union Arena, where it will be a Pink Out Match for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Because of a partnership with Dignity Health, tickets are free to the match at this link.