Potts' 2nd season opens with 3 weekend matches, led off by Friday's full house
By: Paul Coro
There has been plenty of noise about Grand Canyon volleyball since last year with the arrival of a new coach, the Lopes being one call reversal from an NCAA Tournament trip, a move to the Mountain West and the upcoming Friday night rattle and roar of a season-opening capacity crowd.
In a landscape of revised rosters, GCU second-year head coach Kendra Potts has her revamped team blocking out the noise to decode the signals for success.
The base for four Lopes returning from major roles last season has been layered with six January arrivals who went through spring workouts and added to the warm welcome for six fall arrivals. Kendra Potts
"Time allows you to grow more and get to know each other more on and off the court where we can be better coaches to each girl and better people for the team," Potts said. "The trust from coaches to players doesn't seem like it's one side to another. It's all together, and that just takes time."
The signals of a promising season are coming from inside GCU practices, where more is known about the Lopes than those trying to figure out a team of mostly new players in a new conference.
The Lopes expect the need to make adjustments on the fly, starting with a Friday night match against Northeast preseason favorite Long Island in front of 7,000 fans for the campus' Lope-a-Palooza student welcome at Global Credit Union Arena. The match will be broadcast locally on Arizona's Family Sports (Ch. 44) and streamed on Mountain West Network.
GCU will continue through the weekend event with a Saturday match against UT Rio Grande Valley and Sunday match against Gonzaga as it proceeds toward the Mountain West, where the conference's preseason coaches poll picked the Lopes to finish eighth among 12 teams.
Potts said she understood the ranking for a new member with mostly new players but …
"As a coach, I have no problem being like, 'They think we're eight,' " Potts said. "We've got a stamp to make. Let's make sure they realize who we are as a program and as a team.
"We're not going to get distracted by a lot of noise outside of our circle. We always talk about, 'Is it noise or is signal?' Are we really tuned in or is there a lot of fluff around us?" Anderson and Ramirez
What has Potts and her staff optimistically tuned in a team that projects to have a more balanced attack than last season.
As a freshman from Kerrville, Texas, Kubacak was last season's team leader in assists (6.7 per set) and aces (48) while having the second-most digs (274).
"Taylor just knows what is to be expected," Potts said. "Not everything is a surprise, so she is carrying herself more confidently."
Goodere was last season's hitting percentage leader at .299 while averaging more than a block per set. Ramirez delivered two kills per set. Anderson has played a role for the 2023 NCAA Tournament team and last year's WAC Tournament runner-up but has earned the full-time libero role.
"I watched Mykenna Nelson play so great last year, and I'm so happy that I can take that over and help lead the team when they do need me," said Anderson, who is from nearby Scottsdale. "Obviously, we have awesome leaders on our team, but I'm excited to be part of that group.
"It is so fun because we have a lot of different people from different places who were trained by different coaches. We have a lot of depth and a lot of talent. And we have talent in areas that we didn't have in previous years. We've brought them in with open arms." Hayden Goodman
The newcomer group's most experienced additions are graduate transfers Hayden Goodman, via San Francisco, at middle blocker and Sophia Parlanti, via Indianapolis, at outside hitter.
"Them being grad transfers, they are bringing experience and awareness and maturity," Potts said. "All the things that could be lacking, they are filling those voids."
GCU has not stepped into the packed arena for Friday's season opener, but Goodman already has felt the environmental difference in the Lopes' intrasquad and exhibition matches that were played in front of students and fans at Antelope Gymnasium.
"The love and the support from the community is insane to me," said Goodman, a 6-foot-2 native of Park City, Utah. "I'm not used to playing in front of a crowd like this. It's so much fun. They amp us up, and we amp them up. It's like nothing else I've ever seen."
The returnees' buy-in for the program has allowed the experienced and young newcomers have voices that are accepted in the program.
"When you recruit a group and you're trying to put the puzzle pieces together, it's really cool how they have fit together," Potts said.
GCU freshmen Aspyn Reed of Rockford, Washington, and Macey Hughes San Antonio, Texas, arrived on the Phoenix campus for the spring semester, making each a "freshman.5" now in Potts' eyes. The 20-player roster includes eight freshmen and five sophomores.
"Every single person on the team cares about each other and volleyball," Goodman said. "It's really special how deep we are. When we're in practice, it's never like an A side and a B side with a team dominating the scout team. We compete 25-25 every day. There are girls all the way down the bench that can come out and be studs.
"This is genuinely a really, really special group of girls."
It will take that to do something special in the Mountain West, which had eight teams among the NCAA Rating Percentage Index's top 131 in the nation last season. Returning champion and NCAA Tournament qualifier Colorado State was No. 48.
But one point separated GCU from that same destination last season.
"It just makes us want it even more because we were so close," Anderson said. "We have a chance in another conference that doesn't know us, so it's exciting to come out and surprise some people.
"We got closer from it. We worked harder because of it. We are so much stronger in the mental area this year. This year, they don't know who we are. We have a ton of people who are unscouted. That's the fun of it."
Kendra Potts Post Match Press Conference | GCU vs NAU 9.7.25Kendra Potts Post Match Press Conference | GCU vs NAU 9.7.25
Monday, September 08
“You don’t know what it’s like.” | The Lope-a-Palooza Experience“You don’t know what it’s like.” | The Lope-a-Palooza Experience
Saturday, August 30
Bella Nunez & Sophia Parlanti Press Conference | GCU vs LIU | August 29, 2025Bella Nunez & Sophia Parlanti Press Conference | GCU vs LIU | August 29, 2025
"Every single person on the team cares about each other and volleyball," Goodman said. "It's really special how deep we are. When we're in practice, it's never like an A side and a B side with a team dominating the scout team. We compete 25-25 every day. There are girls all the way down the bench that can come out and be studs.
