Rugged sweep pushes Lopes onto MPSF semifinals

Wednesday, April 17

Los Angeles, Calif.

3 p.m.

Grand Canyon

23-4,10-2MPSF

Concordia Irvine

6-19,0-12MPSF

CUI

Grand Canyon

Lopes tripple block in MPSF Quarterfinals

4/17/2024 10:22:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

GCU sets record for wins, faces Stanford for chance to reach Friday championship

By: Nathan Peters

LOS ANGELES – The second-seeded Grand Canyon men's volleyball team advanced to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament semifinals by sweeping seventh-seeded Concordia Irvine 25-19, 27-25, 25-22 in a Wednesday night quarterfinal at Galen Center.

The match began with nervous energy on both sides, but the Lopes (23-4) won their third consecutive match by sweep to set a program record for victories in a season. GCU advances to play fourth-seeded Stanford in a 7:05 p.m. Thursday semifinal at Galen Center.

"We are happy to get that one under our belt," GCU head coach Matt Werle said. "Playoff volleyball is definitely different than regular season stuff, and I don't know that we handled the pressure as well as I would have liked us to, but there was a silent confidence that we've actually talked about and addressed. I almost feel like we needed something a little bit more verbal out there and just some fire and some energy."

The Lopes remained in control through a 15-kill first set and picked up the offensive pace to finish with 54 kills, a season high for three-set matches.

Despite the lack of fire, GCU junior setter Nicholas Slight and senior outside hitter Camden Gianni still delivered. Slight had 47 assists, his most this season in a three-set match. Slight also surpassed second place on the GCU all-time list with 2,775 career assists in just three seasons. Gianni had a match-high 16 kills on 34 attempts.

Despite the strong performances, it was not the All-MPSF first-team recipients who changed the energy of the match.

"There was a turning point when Cameron Thorne scored in the third set on a transition ball kind of flying around," Werle said. "It seemed like from there on out, we started rolling and playing how we're capable of playing. It was nice to see that we still had it in us tonight but ultimately, we know we need to be better moving forward."

Thorne, a sophomore middle blocker, had four of the Lopes seven team blocks on the evening. This marks the 21st match this season that Thorne led the team in that category.

"Going into this match, we were aware that we were the better team and just wanted to get through it and move on to the next," Werle said. "A little disappointed in how we played, but getting one under our belts, it's a good thing for us."

Stanford reached the semifinals by sweeping Pepperdine 25-22, 25-17, 25-19 in the later match Wednesday night. Sixth-seeded USC upset third-seeded BYU earlier Wednesday, lining up a semifinal match against UCLA on the Trojans' home court. The Cougars' early exit might eliminate them from NCAA tournament hopes.

GCU faced Stanford in Phoenix in early March, when the home squad swept both matches convincingly. The matches were the first for the Lopes as the then-No. 1 team in the country.

Werle made a statement after one of the Stanford matches earlier this season that remains true this time around: "We're not done."