Lopes cruise in sweep against UC Irvine

Friday, September 20

Riverside, Calif.

3 p.m.

Grand Canyon

6-4,0-0WAC

UC Irvine

5-5,0-0Big West

Grand Canyon

UC Irvine

Photo by: Nathan Peters

9/20/2024 5:28:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Ramirez delivers career-high 13 kills in Big West/WAC Challenge opener

By: Nathan Peters

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The Grand Canyon women's volleyball team cruised through its Big West/WAC Challenge against UC Irvine with a 25-23, 25-19, 25-19 victory on Friday.

The Lopes (6-4) jumped out to a 6-2 lead to open the match. Despite a few opportunities from the Anteaters, GCU closed the set 25-23.

Lopes junior opposite Magdalena Juric had six kills to begin the match, including the set-clinching point.

"MJ (Juric) came in and had her breakout night, so it's just really great for us to be able to find some some glimmers and sparks within our offense in different areas other than our outside attack," GCU head coach Kendra Potts said.

Juric finished the match with nine kills, a three-set career best for the transfer from Washington State.

The second set had 15 ties and six lead changes with GCU leading 15-14 at the media timeout.

At that point, Lopes junior opposite Anaelena Ramirez had seven kills on 16 attempts. Ramirez went on to have a career-high 13 kills on a .367 hitting percentage.

"I feel like we've been talking about Ana (Anaelena) being on the brink of a breakout match soon, and we've been saying that since really the beginning of season, but we knew this was going to happen." Potts said. "We can just celebrate this for her and say, 'Look at you, this is what you do.' So I feel like the whole team is just so excited for her."

A big block from GCU senior middle blocker Trista Strasser forced a timeout by UC Irvine (5-5) with the Lopes leading 21-19 in the second set. Strasser finished the match with a match-high six blocks on the night.

GCU went on to win the set 25-19 thanks to a service ace from graduate libero Mykenna Nelson and a pair of kills from senior outside hitter Ashley Lifgren.

The third set was full of Lopes service pressure. Freshman setter Taylor Kubacak had back-to-back aces, putting the Lopes up 12-10 with consecutive aces also coming from Strasser a few points later to give GCU a 17-14 lead.

Strasser tied a career high with four aces on the match.

"We knew we matched up pretty evenly with Irvine coming in as far as how we serve our opponents, so we knew the serve-and-pass game was going to be really big," Potts said. "We managed being able to pass a little bit more twos instead of falling apart offensively, and I thought we really managed ourselves out of system well, too."

The Lopes kept momentum and finished the set 25-19 to win the match with kills from Juric and freshman middle blocker Audrey Goodere and sophomore defensive specialist Bella Anderson's ace during a 4-2 finish.

Freshman setter Olivia Price combined with Kubacak for 31 assists.

"I'm really proud of our setters and how they distributed the ball and I think that created the seams," Potts said. "I thought they located well for all the hitters, and I'm just super proud of our back-row players with how Bella and Mykenna (Nelson) came in and they set the tone for us in the first contact."

Anderson has played a strong role for the Lopes through the nonconference, seeing the floor in 41 sets thus far.

GCU will complete the Big West/WAC Challenge against Cal Sate Fullerton (3-5) on Saturday at 3 p.m. The Titans play California Baptist on Friday night.