Mountaineers Sweep ‘Lopes at Cal Classic

Saturday, September 10

Berkeley, Calif.

8:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

5-4

Grand Canyon

4-5

Team	1	2	3	Final F
West Virginia	25	25	25	3
Grand Canyon	18	14	19	0

VBTeam-Main-091016.jpg

September 10, 2016 10:07 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

West Virginia Mountaineers

5-4

Final

Grand Canyon Antelopes

4-5

Final Stats

BERKELEY, Calif. – Hitting .329 with 11 blocks, the West Virginia University volleyball team capped the Cal Classic with a 3-0 sweep of Grand Canyon on Saturday at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, California. The Mountaineers (5-4) downed the 'Lopes in set scores of 25-18, 25-14 and 25-19.

“I thought we got better as the tournament went on,” said second-year coach Reed Sunahara. “We had an opportunity for everyone to play tonight, which I think was good. I thought we got better tonight.”

WVU finished the tournament with a 2-1 mark, downing Cal (3-1) on Friday evening before falling to No. 19 Santa Clara (3-1) Saturday afternoon.

Payton Caffrey once again led the way for the Mountaineers, notching 20 kills with four service aces. She finished the match hitting .233 on 30 swings. Hannah Shreve tallied eight kills, hitting .727, and tying for the team lead with five total blocks. Natania Levak also had four kills and a pair of blocks.

Mia Swanegan hit .250 with six kills and a trio of blocks, while Katelyn Evans registered five and hit. 286. Erin Slinde hit a team-best .800 with four kills and chipped in five blocks.

Gianna Gotterba and Taylor Cross led the floor defense with 13 and 10 digs, respectively. Haley Roe assisted on 18 of WVU's 42 kills as Slinde tallied 15 assists.

A 9-0 Mountaineer run withstood a Grand Canyon timeout as West Virginia took a 10-6 lead in the first set. After a kill by the Lopes, WVU rolled off seven consecutive points – including a pair of Caffrey aces – for a 17-6 advantage. GCU found a rhythm, extending the match with a pair of scores at set-point, but Evans found the court for the 25-18 West Virginia win.

The two teams battled through the start of the second set, as kills by Caffrey and Swanegan pushed WVU in front by a score of 8-5. Evans started a 4-0 scoring streak with a kill and capped it with a block, running the Mountaineers lead to six at 13-7. A trio of kills from Caffrey pushed it to eight at 18-10, and the Mountaineers rattled off three straight late to stretch their advantage to 10, up 22-12, before Slinde and Shreve paired for a block to give WVU the 20-13 win and a 2-0 advantage in the match.

West Virginia rolled to an early lead in the third, as back-to-back Swanegan blocks put the score at 8-2. Shreve put a pair on the court for a 17-8 lead before the 'Lopes rallied for four straight, cutting their deficit to just three at 20-17. Shreve again played a significant role, helping on consecutive blocks and adding a kill to bring up match-point at 24-18 before a GCU service error hand the 25-19 win to the Mountaineers, who took the 3-0 sweep.

The Mountaineers travel to Stockton on Monday for a match at Pacific. First serve is set for 10 p.m. ET at the Spanos Center.