PHOENIX — No. 11 BYU men’s volleyball lost its final regular season match in five sets (19-25, 27-25, 19-25, 25-22, 16-14) to Grand Canyon on Thursday.
The Cougars (12-11, 6-6 MPSF) led 6-3 early in the decisive fifth set, before the Lopes (13-14, 3-8 MPSF) managed to bring it back within one, 12-11 later in the set. The set was then tied up at 13-all and the Lopes went on a run to win the set, and the match, 16-14 on a block.
"The guys battled," BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. "It was an exciting match and environment. There were just too many little errors on our side that sucked the wind out of us in crucial moments."
Davide Gardini led the Cougars with a career-high 26 kills and Gabi Garcia Fernandez followed with 17 kills of his own. Freshman setter Brody Earnest reach a new career high as well with 57 assists, the most for a Cougar this season. Felipe de Brito Ferreira set a new career high with three solo blocks, also the most for a BYU player this season.
The Cougars got an early lead in the first set, going up 10-7 on the Lopes. GCU brought it within one, 15-14, but BYU refused to relinquish the lead, going on to win the first set 25-19 on an ace from Alex Ah Sue.
The second set was much closer in the early going before BYU got out to a 15-12 lead midway through. The Cougars then took a 17-14 lead, at which point they were hitting at a .667 percentage and leading in every major statistical category. Andrew Lincoln got his fourth kill in four attempts to maintain a 22-21 lead, but the Lopes put together a run to take the second set 27-25.
BYU came out swinging in the third set to go up 9-3 and never let the Lopes get within a point the rest of the set. The Cougars extended their lead to six, 17-11, before winning the third period 25-19.
The fourth set was neck-and-neck, with the Lopes refusing to go down easy. Garcia Fernandez got a kill to go up, 11-9, but GCU came back to tie it up at 19. The Lopes went on to win the fourth set 25-22.
BYU now awaits the result of Saturday’s match between Stanford and GCU to decide where it will play its first match in the MPSF tournament next week. If the Lopes win again, BYU will host a quarterfinal in Provo on April 13, but if not, the Cougars will hit the road for the tournament. The time and location, as well as live stats and streaming links, will be on the schedule page.