Grand Canyon plays well in 3-2 loss to No. 1 Cal Baptist

It was one of Grand Canyon's best matches, but it just wasn't quite enough to beat NAIA No. 1 Cal Baptist at Antelope Gym Saturday. GCU lost 3-2 by set scores of 30-28, 38-40, 24-30, 30-22, 15-11.

There were 26 ties in the second set win. Freshman Chris Lockwood (Lakewood, Calif./Lakewod) had a kill from an assist by freshman setter Brad Moore (Orange, Calif./Lutheran) to make it 39-38 and GCU finished off the set with a service ace from sophomore Taylor Griffin (Tucson, Ariz./Ironwood Ridge).
GCU had a 2-1 lead, but the Lancers forced a fifth set and won it to sweep the two-match series with the Antelopes.

GCU lost to Cal Baptist, which had beaten NCAA No. 1 Pepperdine and UCLA on consecutive nights, 3-0 Friday.

Grand Canyon coach Chad Speer made some lineup changes Saturday, inserting freshmen Tyler Capko (Las Vegas, Nev./Palo Verde) and Zach Neilson (Phoenix, Ariz./Sandra Day O'Connor) into the lineup and moving Griffin to the right-side hitter spot.
"It made us quicker and more athletic," Speer said. "I think we played well. We had a film session (after Friday's loss) and came to the conclusion we need to spread the ball around better."

While four players had double figure kills and five had at least 17 attempts, sophomore Brock Hutchins (Gilbert, Ariz./Highland/Hawai'i) was the most productive and had one of his best matches accuracy-wise, too. Hutchins set a new school mark for kills with 34 and had a .450 attack percentage on a school-record 60 attempts. Lockwood had 15 kills and a .440 average.

Capko, in his first career start, had 14 kills. Neilson had seven, a service ace and three block assists. Griffin had 11 kills, seven digs and four block assists.
Setter Moore also set a new school mark with 65 assists. He added nine digs, as did Hutchins.

Freshman libero Trent Bruns (Mission Viejo, Calif./Mission Viejo) had 19 digs.
"We're capable of playing well against very good teams," added Speer. "We didn't do that Friday, whether it was our preparation or the guys were just flat."

GCU will host the inaugural GCU Invitational Monday and Tuesday, matches begin at 1 p.m. each day at Antelope Gym. The Antelopes take on Clarke College at 1 p.m. Monday and 7 p.m. Tuesday and Hope International at 7 p.m. Monday and 1 p.m. Tuesday. Clark and HIU play each other at 4 p.m. each day.