No. 9 GCU defeats No. 18 George Mason in 4 sets

Saturday, January 18

Phoenix, Ariz.

4 p.m.

Grand Canyon

4-0,0-0MPSF

George Mason

0-3,0-0EIVA

George Mason

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Nate Cochran

1/18/2025 8:01:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Lopes' season-high 53 kills paces win with 9 service aces

By: Nathan Peters

The No. 9 Grand Canyon men's volleyball team closed the weekend with its second win against No. 18 George Mason on Saturday at Antelope Gymnasium.

The Lopes (4-0) got off to a slow start before eventually taking the match 3-1. GCU head coach Matt Werle was not at the match due to illness, so assistant coach Bryan Dell'Amico took the lead.

GCU posted a season-high 53 kills with junior opposite Trent Moser leading the way with 21 kills on 34 attempts in front of another loud crowd.

"We always get great support here at GCU," Dell'Amico said. "The campus really supports us on the men's volleyball side, and we couldn't be more appreciative of that."

Despite a tight start to the match, the George Mason squad landed a clutch kill to claim the first set 25-23.

The Lopes had a quick change in motivation leading to a much more convincing effort in the second set.

GCU jumped to a 5-3 lead with three kills from Hawaii transfer Cole Ottmar at outside hitter. The Lopes went on a 12-5 run to close the set 25-13 and even the match at 1-1.

A big part of the second set was GCU libero Matthew Thornton. The sophomore received his second start and was a large defensive contributor.

"Matthew was really good tonight," Dell'Amico said. "In serve-receive, he was really dialed in."

The third set saw GCU make an early 4-0 run to jump to a 7-3 lead thanks to two Moser aces, a kill and with a Patriot error.

Later in the set, George Mason rallied to a 20-20 tie befrore electrifying solo blocks from freshman middle blocker Trevell Jordan and graduate outside hitter Karter Rogers.

Jordan and Ottmar secured the third set 25-22 with kills off junior setter Jaxon Herr assists that put GCU ahead 2-1 in the match.

"We would have liked to have gone to Trevell more," Dell'Amico said. "We didn't get our middles involved as much as we would have liked to. I thought he made a couple key blocks down the stretch that helped us to push that lead out."

Herr finished with a career-high 42 assists, along with eight digs and three kills.

Despite a late 3-0 Patriots run in the fourth set, GCU held them off with Moser's and Ottmar's back-to back kills.

The GCU offense benefited from a season-high nine service aces, led by Rogers and Moser each landing three.

The Lopes finished the 25-21 fourth set on a Rogers kill for match point.

"Now we've gone through two weekends and got some wins," Dell'Amico said. "George Mason really stepped it up tonight and gave us a good test but going into next weekend we take another step up with UC Santa Barbara. We need to come in and really put a good week of work in so that we're prepared to do those little things for longer stretches of time."

The Lopes opened the season 4-0 for the third straight year and will host No. 16 UCSB (4-0) for the Gauchos' first road matches at 6 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday in Global Credit Union Arena.

"It is always good to learn lessons in wins instead of having to take the loss in those lessons," Dell'Amico said. "For us, the key is going to be that we need to stay simple and aggressive. That's where we're at our best."