Box Score
PHOENIX—Grand Canyon blew open what was a close match through two sets, pulling away from visiting NJIT in the last two frames for a 3-1 men's volleyball victory Saturday night. The win was the second in two days for the Antelopes against their guests from Northeast.
The teams played a tightly-contested five-set match in Friday's series opener and Grand Canyon prevailed on the strength of a 15-13 win in the fifth and deciding, set. It was more of the same to open Saturday's rematch, as GCU won the first set 25-22, but NJIT got level with a 25-21 victory in the second set. Then the Antelopes rolled by identical 25-16 scores in the third and fourth sets to secure the sweep.
Grand Canyon, which plays in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association despite a geographic location in Arizona, is 14-13 on the season, with eight wins in its last 10 matches. Indeed, Saturday's win vs. NJIT was the eighth in a row at home for the Antelopes accounting for all their victories in the most recent 10-match spell. They are 10-3 at home for the season.
NJIT is 8-12, with four straight losses, all on the road. Indeed, the Highlanders who are 2-10 outside of Newark, have played their last six contests away, going 1-5 in that span. The good news for NJIT, 6-1 at home, is that after returning from Phoenix, the longest away trip on the schedule, the Highlanders will take the shortest away trip, a visit down the hill on Warren Street to Rutgers-Newark on April 2. After that, it's six straight home matches to complete the regular season.
On Saturday at Grand Canyon, victorious GCU had three players with double-figure kills totals, headed by senior Connor Dougherty's 15. Senior Ben Ponnet added 13 kills to go with a match-best 3 service aces and 5 block assists, giving him a match-leading 18.5 individual points. Sophomore middle Christian Ward chipped in 10 kills. Senior setter Keith Smith led everyone with 49 assists and four Antelopes had an ace apiece behind Ponnet's three aces.
On defense, Grand Canyon covered the floor well, reflected in NJIT's .119 hitting percentage. Four Antelopes reached double-figures in digs, with 13 each for Ponnet and Jared Morrison and 10 apiece for Smith and Tanner Maxwell.
With an 8.5-to-6 edge in total team blocks, the 6-foot-9 Ward had six block assists to edge Ponnet's five for match honors.
NJIT's kills leader with 10 was
TJ Jurko, but he also had 10 hitting errors.
Chris Kaepernick had 9 kills, but made 5 errors for a .118 percentage, just behind the team hitting rate. Only
Ryan Thomas (8 kills, 2 errors, .18 attempts, .333) and
Brad Thele (7 kills, 2 errors, 16 attempts, .312) were effective compiling kills and doing so efficiently.
Zak Robben produced 32 of the team's 36 assists and four different players served one ace apiece.
On defense, libero Oren Zydorf came up with a match-leading 19 digs and Robben added 10. No one had more than two blocks for the Highlanders, but one of them was Thele, with a block assist and the only block solo for either side.
The opening set, won by Grand Canyon, was close throughout, with 12 ties and 3 lead changes. The last tie was at 19-19, but GCU got three straight points on kills by Gerrard Lipscombe and Dougherty, followed by an NJIT attack error. The Highlanders won the next two points to pull back within one, but the teams traded points and the Antelopes, ahead 23-22, sealed the deal on a kill for Ward and a block for Ponnet.
Having battled, but lost the opening set, NJIT won the second frame 25-21. The Highlanders went ahead to stay at 7-6, which was part of a 5-1 spurt that left them with a 9-7 edge.
They eventually went up by as many as 6 five different times, the latest at 22-16. Grand Canyon pulled back to within two, 20-22, but NJIT closed out the set on a 3-1 run that included a kill and block assist for Kaepernick and ended on a Grand Canyon attack error.
Back in contention in terms of sets, even at one apiece, NJIT got ties at 1-1 and 3-3 early in the third set, but could not keep up, going from down 6-7 to down 10-17, a negative run of 4-10. Later, Dougherty had back-to-back kills to put the winners ahead 23-14 and they closed out, 25-16
Grand Canyon took the clinching fourth set by the same score after breaking a 1-1 tie on a kill by Dougherty and leading the rest of the way to 25-16.
Although there were no more ties, NJIT, down 8-14, used a 6-1 spurt to get back within a point at 14-15, with Robben getting the kill after a block by Robben and
Raphael Anthony and then an ace by Jurko. But Andrew Muys had two kills for the home team sandwiched around two Highlander hitting errors and the Antelopes went back ahead 19-14, Grand Canyon closed the set and match on a 5-2 tear keyed by three Dougherty kills and two Ponnet aces.
NJIT's visit to the Golden Dome to meet the neighboring Scarlet Raiders is Wednesday at 7 pm. When the teams met at NJIT on March 6, the Highlanders prevailed in a spirited 3-2 contest, with fifth set going to NJIT, 15-13.
