Grand Canyon 0-2 in California Series, Drops 3-0 Decision to Cal Baptist

The Grand Canyon University men’s volleyball team lost to California Baptist University 0-3 tonight in Riverside, Calif. The 'Lopes were defeated by Hope International University Thursday night making them 0-2 for the series and 1-5 overall.

It was a three set match but GCU fought their way through the first two sets, 21-25 and 22-25. The first set seemed promising when they went on a five-point run to lead CBU 5-1. The rest of the set was back and forth before Cal Baptist tied it up at 12-12 and went on a six-point run to gain the lead and later win the set. The second set consisted of one-point and two-point runs, constantly creating a tie score or lead change. Late in the set CBU was able to pull a four-point run that would give them the advantage for the rest of the set. With a 2-0 advantage, the Lancers dominated the third set and beat the ‘Lopes 25-15 to win the match 3-0.

Ben Ponnet (Merchtem, Belgium/OLVC) led the team with 9 kills, Jordon Tarantino (Valley Center, CA/Valley Center , Palomar Community College)with 5, and Ben Hunt (Huntington Beach, CA/Servite) with 4 kills for the night. Junior transfer Andre Fajardo (Chula Vista, CA/Otay Ranch , Grossmont College) had a personal high 7 digs. The team had 24 kills, 26 digs, and 5.5 total blocks.

Grand Canyon will travel to Colorado next week to face Johnson & Wales University and Park University.