FRESNO, Calif. — Grand Canyon delivered a convincing road sweep of Fresno State, 25–19, 25–21, 25–22, on Saturday night at Save Mart Center behind a balanced offensive attack with four Lopes in double-digit kills.
GCU opened the match with a service aces from junior defensive specialist Natalie Guerrero before back and forth scoring.
At 10-10 the Lopes went on a commanding 7-1 run which included multiple big plays from early senior outside Anaelena Ramirez and freshman opposite Macey Hughes.
Ramirez went on to finish the match with 10 kills on a .421 hitting clip to go with Hughes team-high 12 kills on .391.
In the back half of the set, sophomore middle blocker Aubrey Goodere added four of her 10 match kills before freshman middle Aubrey Bellus would end the set on a kill of her own.
Goodere hit .714 on the match, the third best individual mark in the GCU D1-era.
GCU hit .424 with 19 kills in the set while holding Fresno State to 12 kills.
The second set was tightly contested with the visiting GCU squad trailing 12-16 before propelling ahead on a 6-0 run. From then on, the Lopes had momentum to win the set 25-21 with a Hughes kill claiming it.
The Lopes tallied 17 kills and four of its eight service aces in the frame.
Fresno State kept the third set close with 18 ties, but GCU’s late offensive push sealed it.
After the Bulldogs led 19–18 in the third set, GCU went on a 7–3 closing run to claim the set 25-22 and clinch the match.
Graduate outside Sophia Parlanti tallied 10 kills with a .360 hitting percentage and added two blocks for 11.5 points. Parlanti gave the Lopes an important third-set 23-22 lead.
As a team, GCU finished with 53 kills on .369 hitting and recorded eight service aces.
The win improved GCU to 13–8 overall and 5–5 in Mountain West play with a 4-1 conference road record.
The Lopes will return home to host Air Force on Oct. 30 and Nevada on Nov. 1. The match against Nevada will include a Senior Day celebration for GCU’s three seniors.