Season begins with pair of sweeps at home

Saturday, February 24

Phoenix, Ariz.

10 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Arizona Christian

Photo by: Wesley Kurz

2/24/2024 3:45:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

New-look GCU squad looks to continue dominance Sunday

By: Nathan Peters

The Grand Canyon beach volleyball team opened the season with 5-0 sweeps of Arizona Christian and Ottawa (Arizona) on Saturday at GCU Beach Volleyball Stadium.

"I am proud of the whole team collectively coming together, it's such a wonderful group of young women that are high level athletes and they show up together," Lopes head coach Abra Rummel said after her debut day at GCU's helm. "As a coach, I feel like that's always the number one thing, is your team better than the sum of your individual parts."

The new-look Lopes began Saturday with a dominant 21-6, 21-11 win against Arizona Christian from the Court 4 pair of Madi Bogle and Adriana Serrano Ferro. Bogle is a junior transfer from Grossmont College, and Ferro is a freshman that was highly recruited out of Spain. In its second match of the day, the duo continued the strong showing against Ottawa with a 21-15, 21-16 win.

At Court 2, Karynn Garrow and Noelle Weintraub had a tough start but took care of business in the end for a 25-27, 21-15, 15-6 victory against Arizona Christian. In the second match against Ottawa, the freshman-senior duo only allowed 24 points combined in the 21-12, 21-12 win.

The next match to finish against Arizona Christian was on Court 5, where Mackenzie Harris paired with an impressive debut from Katie Keefe to win 21-14, 21-7 against Arizona Christian and 21-9, 21-12 against Ottawa.

Junior Jessica Drake and her senior partner Sarah Dickson are the only GCU starting pair with two returnees. The chemistry showed on Court 3, where they quickly won their first match 21-10, 21-14 against Arizona Christian. In the match against Ottawa, the pair finished strong against Ottawa in a 21-16, 21-7 win.

The final flight of both matches was won by senior Krista Rowan and transfer junior Sophia Hladyniuk on the top court. The dynamic defense-blocker combo beat Arizona Christian 21-15, 21-13. The center court net was dominated by Rowan in the victory. The two did not stop there, topping Ottawa 21-15, 21-12.

"Hopefully, we can translate the high-percentage game we played today and add in a little bit of the sophisticated offense and defense that we've been working on," Rummel said.

The Lopes are back in action at GCU Beach Volleyball Stadium on Sunday, when they take on Boise State at 11 a.m. and UAB at 1 p.m..

GCU-Arizona Christian box score can be found here.
GCU-Ottawa box score can be found here.