Tucker, Kohl rep GCU's battle back to NCAAs

Friday, May 1

Gulf Shores, Ala.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

(6) Cal Poly

Photo by: David Kadlubowski

4/30/2026 6:07:00 PM | Beach Volleyball, Paul Coro

PRACTICE PHOTO GALLERY

Injuries sidelined Lopes for years but they led team to Friday's 1st-round match vs. Cal Poly

By: Paul Coro

GULF SHORES, Ala. – Grand Canyon beach volleyball has waited three years to get back to this picturesque, prestigious scene of NCAA Championships on the sandy doorstep of Gulf Shores' waves.

Lopes junior Isabelle Tucker just arrived at GCU last year, but her fulfillment for this program watershed moment is right there with her 11th-seeded teammates entering Friday's first-round match against sixth-seeded Cal Poly. The ESPN2 broadcast starts at 2 p.m. (Phoenix time).

Tucker was part of two Court 5 wins for Loyola Marymount here in 2023, but chronic back issues sidelined her for two seasons and the first 12 dual matches of this GCU season before her return elevated the Lopes' postseason prospects.
Isabelle Tucker

The 5-foot-10 England native practiced Thursday on the court where she thrived as a freshman three years ago, thinking she would return to the idyllic beach volleyball scene yearly. But confusing, painful lower-back issues took away her passion with varying timelines for her last two years at LMU.

More than 1,000 days passed between her 2023 NCAA Championship appearance and her March 13 debut for GCU this season. Tucker teamed with senior Jessica Drake, a 2023 NCAA Tournament player for GCU, and injured her abdomen in the warmup of that March 13 three-set loss against Santa Clara. Tucker and Drake were split up, but the duo reassembled and won five of their past six matches.

"Coming back after this long and wanting to prove yourself after things looked great your freshman year, it shows a lot of character to come back from that," Tucker said. "It sounds so cliché and cringy, but absence makes the heart grow fonder. It's so hard to go years watching on the sideline and not being able to do what you love. Playing with freedom and having a laugh on the court with your friends makes it worth it."

The injury struggle was different with shoulder issues for junior teammate Rhea Kohl, but the lost time was nearly the same – three years without beach volleyball cumulatively. Kohl, a 5-foot-10 junior from Toronto, dislocated her right shoulder three times since eighth grade to delay and seemingly derail playing for her dream school, GCU. Two surgeries reset her career, first as a high school junior and then as a junior college player in Florida.
Rhea Kohl

Kohl played mostly left-handed following her second surgery, a period that proved helpful to make her a more well-rounded player. This is her second full season with the Lopes, playing with sophomore Mae Manthe this season as two former full-time defenders who are now split blockers.

"I wouldn't say that I never imagined being here because I did have this as my goal and I saw that GCU was here before so I knew this was doable," Kohl said. "But with this crew and how many setbacks the team has had, we've really stuck together and become closer together. This is the best mental team we've ever had. There are amazing skill-set teams, but mentally there's a factor that other teams don't have and I think we have it."

It has been hard to keep the smiles off the Lopes faces prior to this week, but landing an at-large berth and being on the softest sand of Gulf Shores has them beaming.
GCU in Gulf Shores

GCU gets another crack at Cal Poly, which beat the Lopes 5-0 in San Luis Obispo before Tucker's return. The stakes are higher now with a beachside scene of bleachers, blaring music and television camera towers.

The Lopes reached the NCAA Tournament in 2022 and 2023 but lost 3-2 each time when third-year head coach Abra Rummel was a Lopes assistant coach.

Kohl's game once was not ready for the standard of a GCU program chasing an NCAA Tournament return, but Kohl wrote Rummel a long email to make her case for how she would prove worthy to the Lopes if given a chance. She got the chance and delivered to crack the Lopes lineup for two seasons, which are being capped by Friday's NCAA Tournament appearance.

If GCU can upset Cal Poly, the Lopes would play Friday's UCLA-Tulane winner in a Saturday quarterfinal at 10 a.m. (Phoenix time).

"I really do believe we can give Cal Poly a fight, and it's going to be a brawl because we're both great teams," said Kohl, who is making her first Gulf Shores visit since watching the tournament as a teenager with current Lopes teammate Karynn Garrow of Boerne, Texas. "I see younger kids now and I think, 'What do they think of me because whenever I looked at players then, I was like, 'You're so cool.'

"Sitting on the outside and being out puts this in perspective. Now that I'm back, I'm like, 'The sand is so pretty. I love the feel of this ball. This net is perfect. Everything's great.' Each touch is rewarding, like a breath of fresh air."