Hawai'i wave of sweeps continues

Saturday, October 3

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

7-8,1-3Mountain West

Hawai'i

12-3,4-0Mountain West

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Hawaii	25	25	25	3
Grand Canyon	23	21	10	0

Photo by: Nate Cochran

10/3/2026 7:59:00 PM | Volleyball, Paul Coro

Box Score

Injury-ridden Lopes hang tight early, lose in 3 sets in front of 2,561

By: Paul Coro

Grand Canyon has no issue with its talent and its play putting itself in a position to win. But after Hawai'i repeated Friday night's formula of pulling out two tight early sets, the Lopes will be in the practice gym with a clear intention to change the way it finishes sets.

Hawai'i recorded its fourth consecutive sweep victory by downing GCU 25-23, 25-23, 25-10 in front of 2,561 fans, the season's second-largest crowd at Global Credit Union Arena.

With two middle blockers out injured, GCU (7-8, 1-3 MW) leaned hard on fifth-year outside hitter Starr Williams for 17 kills but surrendered .293 hitting to Hawai'i (12-3, 4-0 MW) after holding the Rainbow Wahine to .165 hitting on Friday night.

"We're not going to sit and feel sorry for ourselves," GCU head coach Kendra Potts said. "We're just going to get better. We know what kind of team we are. We don't need to lose sight of how good we are. We don't need to forget how we finish games, so that's going to be our focus this week."

The early theme to Saturday's match was too familiar for the Lopes, who committed 11 service errors in a pair of 25-23 losses in Friday night's first two sets against Hawai'i.

In another 25-23 set loss, GCU opened the match with seven service errors in the first set to keep it from ever retaking a lead after 1-0. Behind the first six of Williams' kills, the Lopes pulled even at 15-15, 16-16, 17-17, 18-18, 19-19, 20-20 and 23--23. But with five of the Rainbow Wahine's final 10 points of the sets coming on GCU service errors, Hawai'i closed out the set with its fourth block after not having a first-set block Friday night.

"It was a replica," Potts said. "You know you still have a lot of learning and growing to do if we're going to repeat the same things that we did a night before and not learn from it in real time. That is always something we've been big on, that we can learn in real time. We don't have to wait until Monday to get better at it. But here we are needing to get back in the gym on Monday and learn how to handle some service pressure when it's 23-23 and we're bailing a team out. We're going to face it head on, talk about it and train through it."

The Rainbow Wahine did not hit .200 in either of Friday's first two sets but delivered .250 and .267 clips in the first and second sets, respectively, on Saturday night. Pairing that with its relentless defense, Hawai'i never trailed in the second set despite another close battle.

GCU repeatedly battled out of four- and five-point holes to challenge Hawai'i in the second set, closing the gap to 20-18 after back-to-back blocks by Williams prompted a Rainbow Wahine timeout. The Lopes remained within two points at 23-21 when freshman middle blocker Mia Vukic, making her career debut because of two GCU injuries, put a solo block on Hawai'i standout outside hitter Miliana Sylvester,

But a Rainbow Wahine kill-and-block combination closed out the 25-21 second set for a 2-0 lead, and the momentum spilled into the third set for a 6-1 start. GCU never recovered, pushing back last at 17-10 before Hawai'i ended the match with eight consecutive points on two aces, two kills, two blocks and two GCU errors. Hawai'i hit a blistering .385 in the third set to GCU's minus-.088.

"We care too much and we make the moment too big or we're not prepared to play in big moments," Potts said "Whatever you chalk it up to, we've got to be more physical. We've got to be able to handle the job in front of us and not make it too big. We've got a great team of girls who care, but don't put the pressure of caring too much at the forefront rather than just doing your job and being a physical volleyball player."

The Lopes will look to start a Mountain West standings climb next week at UNLV, where they play Thursday and Saturday at the site of the Mountain West Championship. UNLV (5-10, 1-3) is coming off a split of sweep matches at MW preseason favorite UTEP.

"We've got to put our heads down and go to work this week because we are capable of winning the Mountain West," said sophomore opposite Macey Hughes, who had five kills Saturday night. "We're going to get on fire this week in practices. This is where we can't wait to get in the gym to work out the errors and get our team back in order."