Lessons come with Lopes' 1st loss

Sunday, September 7

Phoenix, Ariz.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

5-1,0-0Mountain West

Northern Arizona

4-2,0-0Big Sky

Northern Ariz.

Grand Canyon

Photo by: David Kadlubowski

9/7/2025 6:13:00 PM | Women's Volleyball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

GCU suffers 1st injury, early-set losses of season after its 5-win streak

By: Paul Coro

For the first time this season, Grand Canyon volleyball experienced dropping a first set, losing a starter to injury, being in a 2-0 hole and ultimately losing a match.

Northern Arizona delivered GCU's first 2025 defeat with a 25-21, 25-23, 19-25, 25-11 win, but the Lopes hope to take away something more productive than a loss.

For a GCU team that will play at No. 1 Nebraska and No. 7 Arizona State before starting its first Mountain West play this month, Lopes head coach Kendra Potts saw 13 players handle new experiences.

"You're trying to string together as many consistent, high-level days that you can," Potts said. "Then, all of a sudden, you kind of get punched in the face. NAU, I've got give them credit. They played some great volleyball.

"You'd like to go 6-0, but, hey, 5-1. There's a lot of positive glimmers that we have so far. Today is humbling. We can lose and feel sorry for ourselves, or we can lose and learn. If we lose and learn, it's a loss on the record, but I don't feel like it's a loss as a team."

NAU (4-2) hit crisply at .382 to hold off GCU (5-1) in a tight first set, when Lopes graduate outside hitter Sophia Parlanti recorded five of her 11 kills to follow up her 13-kill match in GCU's Saturday night win against Washington State.

With a balanced attack, the Lopes led for most of the second despite being outhit by the Lumberjacks. A block from junior outside hitter Anaelena Ramirez, who had four of her team-high 12 kills in the second set, put GCU ahead 22-19 when junior libero Bella Anderson suffered an injury.

A kill from Lopes freshman setter/opposite Bella Nunez still put GCU ahead 23-20 before NAU ended the set on a 5-0 run that included two Lopes errors.

"We've got to make sure we're OK with playing a scrappy, ugly game of volleyball and finding ways to still terminate, finding ways to still score," Potts said. "We wanted it to be a little easier than what it should have been."

Phoenix, AZ Sept. 7, 2025 : The Lopes drop their match 1-3 against Northern Arizona during the GCU Classic at Global Credit Union Arena — Taylor Kubacak and Sophia Parlanti

The Lopes responded to their first deficit of the season with Ramirez scoring on five kills in the third set. GCU never trailed in the set, but NAU tightened the score to 21-19 before the Lopes closed out the set on a 4-0 run with Ramirez's fifth kill of the set, freshman middle blocker Aubrey Bellus' kill, graduate middle blocker Hayden Goodman's ace and Nunez's block.

"Our attackers were being assertive," Potts said. "That was our cleanest set of the day, which was still pretty low. We hit .200, and we've been hitting way above that so far this season. I feel like our hitters were seeing some simple seams."

That momentum did not sustain. NAU opened the fourth set with a 5-1 lead and broke open the set with a 7-0 run later for a 16-5 lead. The Lumberjacks won nine of the last 11 points in a .455-hitting set to GCU's minus-.011.

"We're going to be better from this today," said Potts, who has one of the nation's best coaching career records at 149-36 (.805). "It's one of those things where you can tell them over and over again, 'You can't play like this. It'll come back to bit you.' They have to go through it sometimes. We hate having to go through it, but sometimes this feeling is actually what you need to learn that lesson."

The individual highlights included sophomore defensive specialist Natalie Guerrero, a Stephen F. Austin transfer from nearby Tolleson, switching to the libero jersey for the final two sets and finishing with 12 digs. Bellus, a Mesa Mountain View High School graduate, also capped her first college action this weekend with three kills after recording four in her Friday night debut.

"A good, positive glimmer was Natalie," Potts said. "I thought she did a great job managing that switch and even (sophomore) Hunter (West) coming in. I don't feel like our first contact out of service fell too much after Bella went out, and her (Anderson's) superpower is her serve receive."

After going 5-1 in a pair of home tournaments, the Lopes will head to the Husker Invitational next weekend in Lincoln, Nebraska, where they will play Drake on Friday and top-ranked host Nebraska on Saturday.

The Cornhuskers also led the nation in attendance last season at 8,713 fans per home match.

"I did tell them there's a reason why we put Nebraska on the schedule and do not talk about hoping to just play well and enjoy the experience every day we step foot on the court," Potts said. "We play to win. We play to battle, and that's going to be our locker room talk.

"Maybe this loss helps us be really refined and determined in the gym this week. So when we hit the road and go to Nebraska, we're even more prepared."