PHOENIX — NCAA record-breaking match between No. 1 BYU and No. 9 GCU ended in a Grand Canyon sweep (22-25, 43-45, 25-10) at the GCU Arena on Thursday. 

BYU and Grand Canyon are now on record for the longest set played in NCAA history. Set two between the Cougars and the ‘Lopes ended in a 45-43 Grand Canyon win.

KEY PLAYERS

• Gabi Garcia Fernandez: 15 kills, .229 hitting percentage, two service aces
• Davide Gardini: 12 kills, One ace, six digs, one block
• Felipe de Brito Ferreira: Six kills, .500 hitting percentage, two blocks
• Wil Stanley: 34 assists, five digs

SET ONE

Set one started with the two teams going back and forth. Both teams put forth great efforts, but Grand Canyon ultimately ran away with the lead after a 17-17 tie to win 25-22. BYU had 13 kills on a .310 clip as a team. Serves and blocks were in GCU’s favor with two aces and three blocks. 

SET TWO

Set two started with a shakeup in the BYU lineup with Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga stepping in for Zach Escheberg. The set began 5-0, with GCU taking a strong lead. After a timeout by BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead, a service error by Grand Canyon brought BYU into the match. GCU led for most of the set until a hitting error brought the game to a 22-22 tie. 'Lopes called a timeout, causing a Gabi Garcia Fernandez service error. One more point by GCU would have ended the set, but a ‘Lopes attack error led to a kill by Wil Stanley and a Davide Gardini ace to tie it at 24s. Service aces and errors would be the story of this historic set with a combined 22 service errors and six aces between the two teams. Each team had many, many opportunities to end the set but an attack error by Gardini and a blocking error by Garcia Fernandez allowed the ‘Lopes to seal the win. 

SET THREE

The third set started, as the set before, with both teams fighting for the lead. After a 3-3 tie, GCU quickly took off with the lead. In the third set alone the ‘Lopes dished out four aces, five blocks, and seven kills to stifle the Cougars, holding BYU to only 10 points. 

The No. 1 ranked Cougars, now 5-2, will face Grand Canyon for the fourth time in a row Saturday, Feb. 27th at Noon in GCU Arena. The match will be broadcast on GCUTV.

PROVO, Utah — No. 1 ranked men’s volleyball (5-1) is heading to Phoenix for a pair of matches at No. 9 Grand Canyon (1-3) this week.

Games are scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25 at 6:00 pm MST and Feb. 27 at Noon. All matches will be played in GCU Arena and will be broadcast on GCUTV. 

BYU is looking to continue a 5-game win streak and uphold their No. 1 ranking. This will be the third and fourth time the Cougars and ‘Lopes have faced off this year, all in a row. The first meeting on Feb. 18th ended in a 3-1 set BYU win. Gabi Garcia Fernandez led the team with 15 kills and 2 aces, followed by Davide Gardini with 14 kills, one ace and four blocks. The Feb. 20th match was a 5-set thriller lasting nearly three hours from first to last whistle. Depth on the BYU team, led by a career night for Zach Eschenberg and off the bench performance by Brandon Oberender, contributed to the win. 

Assistant coach Micah Naone spoke on this week’s matches after Saturday's win. He said,  “We approached the sets we won with a better mindset and it paid off. What we were doing was working, GCU was just getting there two points faster than us. For us, going forward next week, cleaning up some of those little mistakes will help. Those little points just add up and I think we will do a better job.”

There will be a limited amount of GCU students and athlete families in attendance. For information on GCU's spring sports attendance policy click HERE