Completed Event: Men's Volleyball versus #6 BYU on March 21, 2025 , Loss , 1, to, 3
M Volleyball
vs #6 BYU
L 1-3
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Tuesday, April 30
Long Beach, Calif.
7:30 p.m.
Grand Canyon
26-4,10-2MPSF
3
vs
0
Ohio State
22-9,11-5MIVA
1
2
3
F
Ohio St.
23
20
21
0
Grand Canyon
25
25
25
3
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
1st NCAA tourney win puts Lopes in Final Four
4/30/2024 10:35:00 PM | Men's Volleyball, Paul Coro
GCU sweeps Ohio State, faces host Long Beach State in Thursday semifinal
LONG BEACH, Calif. – The college men's volleyball scene was looking for Grand Canyon to make history with its first NCAA tournament win Tuesday night.
The Lopes were looking at making progress toward a larger piece of history. Third-seeded GCU swept sixth-seeded Ohio State, 25-23, 25-20, 25-21, in a Tuesday night quarterfinal that sends the Lopes to the Final Four, where they will face second-seeded host Long Beach State on Thursday night.
"At no point did I think we were not in control of the match, and I think that showed with just the composure of our guys," GCU head coach Matt Werle said. "We talk about just trying to be consistent with the product we're putting out there. It's a different stage. It's a bigger stage. But our guys were who they were, and they didn't try to go outside of themselves. Ultimately, I think that consistency was really important to us."
The match at Walter Pyramid started inauspiciously with one of the nation's best servers, All-American senior Camden Gianni, putting the opening serve into the standard right of the playing net.
"We did our best to set the bar super low early with Camden Gianni almost taking down the R1 (referee) with his first serve," Werle joked to open the postgame press conference.
But any notion that these Lopes (26-4) would show the nerves of last season's team, which lost its first NCAA tournament appearance to Long Beach State in three sets, vanished quickly in the diversity of GCU's attack led by Gianni's 12 kills.
Lopes setter Nicholas Slight assisted on 11 of GCU's first 15 points. When they came out of that break with a 15-14 lead, sophomore middle blocker teamed on back-to-back blocks with Gianni and graduate opposite Jarrett Anderson to cause Ohio State to take a timeout with a 17-14 deficit.
It would become a familiar turning point with GCU leading each set 17-14 and never giving up that lead each time.
Thorne and fellow middle blocker Rico Wardlow, a senior, combined for 13 kills without an error and a .722 hitting percentage against an Ohio State team that hit .317 on the season.
"Our pins were setting up the block perfect tonight," said Thorne, who added five blocks. "We held them to hitting .240 with a lot of blocks touches from this guy and a lot of great setups from Jackson Hickman, Nicholas Slight, Jarrett Anderson, Camden Gianni. Those guys are beasts, and they help us do our job 10 times better."
Slight played often with slight of hand, making defensive plays like a dig by junior libero Cooper Herndon or his block with Thorne stand up with assists. He went reverse and crosscourt as well as to the back row and middle to balance out the pin attacks.
After Ohio State tightened GCU's first-set lead to 24-23, Slight found senior outside hitter Jackson Hickman on the left side for his 14th assist of the set on match point. The flash carried over to the start of the second set when his reverse set from one sideline found Anderson on the opposite sideline for a kill.
"He definitely was feeling himself out there with his reverse flow," Werle said of Slight, who delivered 34 assists. "He was 'Nicky Flash' out of high school for a reason. We've tried to take that whole flash side out of it, but he was delivering the ball really nicely and it kept their block off-balance. It's a testament to our service game to allow the opportunities to get (the middle blockers) involved in the middle of the court."
The Lopes never trailed the second set, although Ohio State (22-9) tied the score six times on the way to 10-10. After a one-hand backward Slight assist for an 18-16 lead, Ohio State responded with a point before a Hickman kill off Slight's back-row bump started a 4-0 run that included three Buckeyes errors.
Thorne put away a stray Buckeyes dig on match point for a 25-20 win and 2-0 match lead.
"Once we started hitting some serving targets, our block and defense just got a lot better," Werle said. "We talked about being consistent this the match because there's going to be some highs and lows. On the back side of it all, those long rallies that were super-exciting to watch, I thought we handled those really well and controlled that chaos."
Ohio State led the earlygoing of the third set, but GCU responded to a 10-8 hole by taking the lead on Anderson's block with Thorne. The Lopes were relentless from there, putting pressure on the Buckeyes with their service game that only made three errors.
An Ohio State timeout could not stop a rally that surged GCU to a 19-14 lead with Thorne again at the thick of it in the middle.
"They kept firing and didn't make many mistakes and it was tough to beat," Buckeyes head coach Kevin Burch said.
Once Wardlow gave GCU match point at 24-18, All-American senior outside hitter Jacob Pasteur tried to carry his team back with a two kills and an ace before his service error capped the Lopes' 17th sweep of the season.
"In comparison to last year, the way we feel out on the court is much more calm and a lot less frantic," Wardlow said. "I feel like we're handling the bigger moment a lot better this year than we did last year. I think the history thing is something that everyone is going to look back on after the season is over. I don't really feel that right now. I feel like we still have a job to do."
GCU will play No. 1 Long Beach State at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Pyramid, where the Beach is 18-0 this season. The Lopes lost to Long Beach State in four sets at last season's NCAA tournament and had only met once previously in a 2019 Beach win.
"The job's not finished," Thorne said.
The Lopes were looking at making progress toward a larger piece of history. Third-seeded GCU swept sixth-seeded Ohio State, 25-23, 25-20, 25-21, in a Tuesday night quarterfinal that sends the Lopes to the Final Four, where they will face second-seeded host Long Beach State on Thursday night.
"At no point did I think we were not in control of the match, and I think that showed with just the composure of our guys," GCU head coach Matt Werle said. "We talk about just trying to be consistent with the product we're putting out there. It's a different stage. It's a bigger stage. But our guys were who they were, and they didn't try to go outside of themselves. Ultimately, I think that consistency was really important to us."
The match at Walter Pyramid started inauspiciously with one of the nation's best servers, All-American senior Camden Gianni, putting the opening serve into the standard right of the playing net.
"We did our best to set the bar super low early with Camden Gianni almost taking down the R1 (referee) with his first serve," Werle joked to open the postgame press conference.
But any notion that these Lopes (26-4) would show the nerves of last season's team, which lost its first NCAA tournament appearance to Long Beach State in three sets, vanished quickly in the diversity of GCU's attack led by Gianni's 12 kills.
Lopes setter Nicholas Slight assisted on 11 of GCU's first 15 points. When they came out of that break with a 15-14 lead, sophomore middle blocker teamed on back-to-back blocks with Gianni and graduate opposite Jarrett Anderson to cause Ohio State to take a timeout with a 17-14 deficit.It would become a familiar turning point with GCU leading each set 17-14 and never giving up that lead each time.
Thorne and fellow middle blocker Rico Wardlow, a senior, combined for 13 kills without an error and a .722 hitting percentage against an Ohio State team that hit .317 on the season.
"Our pins were setting up the block perfect tonight," said Thorne, who added five blocks. "We held them to hitting .240 with a lot of blocks touches from this guy and a lot of great setups from Jackson Hickman, Nicholas Slight, Jarrett Anderson, Camden Gianni. Those guys are beasts, and they help us do our job 10 times better."
Slight played often with slight of hand, making defensive plays like a dig by junior libero Cooper Herndon or his block with Thorne stand up with assists. He went reverse and crosscourt as well as to the back row and middle to balance out the pin attacks.
After Ohio State tightened GCU's first-set lead to 24-23, Slight found senior outside hitter Jackson Hickman on the left side for his 14th assist of the set on match point. The flash carried over to the start of the second set when his reverse set from one sideline found Anderson on the opposite sideline for a kill."He definitely was feeling himself out there with his reverse flow," Werle said of Slight, who delivered 34 assists. "He was 'Nicky Flash' out of high school for a reason. We've tried to take that whole flash side out of it, but he was delivering the ball really nicely and it kept their block off-balance. It's a testament to our service game to allow the opportunities to get (the middle blockers) involved in the middle of the court."
The Lopes never trailed the second set, although Ohio State (22-9) tied the score six times on the way to 10-10. After a one-hand backward Slight assist for an 18-16 lead, Ohio State responded with a point before a Hickman kill off Slight's back-row bump started a 4-0 run that included three Buckeyes errors.
Thorne put away a stray Buckeyes dig on match point for a 25-20 win and 2-0 match lead.
"Once we started hitting some serving targets, our block and defense just got a lot better," Werle said. "We talked about being consistent this the match because there's going to be some highs and lows. On the back side of it all, those long rallies that were super-exciting to watch, I thought we handled those really well and controlled that chaos."
Ohio State led the earlygoing of the third set, but GCU responded to a 10-8 hole by taking the lead on Anderson's block with Thorne. The Lopes were relentless from there, putting pressure on the Buckeyes with their service game that only made three errors.
An Ohio State timeout could not stop a rally that surged GCU to a 19-14 lead with Thorne again at the thick of it in the middle.
"They kept firing and didn't make many mistakes and it was tough to beat," Buckeyes head coach Kevin Burch said.Once Wardlow gave GCU match point at 24-18, All-American senior outside hitter Jacob Pasteur tried to carry his team back with a two kills and an ace before his service error capped the Lopes' 17th sweep of the season.
"In comparison to last year, the way we feel out on the court is much more calm and a lot less frantic," Wardlow said. "I feel like we're handling the bigger moment a lot better this year than we did last year. I think the history thing is something that everyone is going to look back on after the season is over. I don't really feel that right now. I feel like we still have a job to do."
GCU will play No. 1 Long Beach State at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Pyramid, where the Beach is 18-0 this season. The Lopes lost to Long Beach State in four sets at last season's NCAA tournament and had only met once previously in a 2019 Beach win.
"The job's not finished," Thorne said.
Team Stats
OSU
GCU
Kills
42
41
Errors
19
11
Attempts
96
90
Hitting %
.240
.333
Points
48.5
48.5
Assists
38
38
Aces
3
1
Blocks
3.5
6.5
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Kills
12
Aces
1
Blocks
2
Kills
8
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Kills
7
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Kills
7
Aces
0
Blocks
1
Players Mentioned
Opp
/ Men's Volleyball
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