Despite momentum switch, No. 6 BYU defeats GCU in 4

Friday, March 21

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

13-6,2-3MPSF

BYU

15-6,3-2MPSF

BYU

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Nate Cochran

3/21/2025 9:36:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Moser provides elite offense in match versus former team

By: Nathan Peters

The Grand Canyon men's volleyball team battled hard but fell in a four-set match against No. 6 BYU at Global Credit Union Arena, breaking the Lopes' four match win-streak.

GCU (13-6, 2-3 MPSF) dropped the first two sets before responding with a strong third-set win. However, BYU (15-6, 3-2 MPSF) closed out the match in the fourth to secure the victory with set scores of 25-18, 25-18, 22-25, and 25-23.

Junior outside hitter Trent Moser led the Lopes' offense with 16 kills while hitting .375. Jarrett Anderson contributed 12 kills on .417 hitting and added four blocks. Setter Kyle Zediker paced the offense with 25 assists, while Jaxon Herr tallied 22 assists and four digs.

"Obviously was an emotional night for Trent, transferring from BYU, and we chatted a little with him before the game about making sure he managed his emotions and not let the game be too big for himself," Lopes coach Bryan Dell'Amico said of Moser. "He is such a mature kid and plays with a maturity that especially offensively he was very good tonight."

The opening set saw an early back-and-forth battle with eight ties before BYU used a late surge to pull away. The Cougars hit .500 in the frame while taking the set 25-18.

BYU carried momentum into the second set, using strong serving and blocking to build a lead. GCU struggled to find rhythm, committing five service errors as the Cougars claimed another 25-18 win.

"I think that in the men's game, that is probably the biggest frustration for the casual fan," Dell'Amico said of service errors. "They don't understand that we really are trying to be aggressive serving to take people out of system because if you are in system, it's just difficult to stop in the men's game. With that said, I thought tonight was a really poor effort on our part, because we came in with a focus to go at 85 percent serve or even 70 percent serve and put more balls in to put more pressure on them."

In total GCU had 19 service errors with four service aces while BYU had 10 errors to seven aces.

"We definitely did a poor job of that tonight, so they beat us in the serve and pass game all-around and that ended up probably being the difference in the game," Dell'Amico said.

The Lopes responded in the third set, coming alive defensively with seven blocks to stifle BYU's attack. Moser and Anderson delivered key kills down the stretch to help GCU take the set 25-22.

"Jarrett is a pro," GCU coach Jon Girten said of Anderson. "I feel like they got on him early, think they got a couple blocks on him and I don't know that he was defending up to his level. I was actually more happy with his defensive effort, I feel like we are going to get that kind of offensive production from him, but I think he made a concerted effort to really get after it on defense and I thought that was what kind of changed the tide for us."

Freshman middle blocker Trevell Jordan added nine kills on 15 attempts Friday evening.

The fourth set was tightly contested, featuring four ties and multiple lead changes. GCU battled to extend the match, but BYU held firm in the closing moments, sealing the win at 25-23.

Defensively, the Lopes libero duties were split between senior Cooper Herndon and sophomore Matthew Thornton. The Lopes totaled 28 digs as a team while recording nine total blocks..

GCU will look to bounce back Saturday at 6 p.m. against BYU for round two with some of the momentum that turned the match.

"We made some adjustments, but some of it was just you don't know what an opponent is doing, like the tempo is different, like the attackers are different, and I think it took us a little while to sort of figure some guys out," Girten said of the change in momentum during the match. "It did feel like over time we started to really get a sense of what they were trying to do, how their guys were attacking the ball, the tempo that they were trying to push. Obviously, they will make some adjustments to us as well. That's the beauty of getting to play back-to-backs, there will be minor adjustments from both sides, and that's the fun part of this job."