PHOENIX – Still searching for its first road win of the season, No. 12 Stanford fell in straight sets at No. 10 Grand Canyon, 25-21, 25-20, 25-15, Thursday, at GCU Arena.
The Lopes registered their fifth consecutive home sweep, improving to 15-9 overall and 5-4 in the MPSF. The Cardinal dropped to 10-10, 2-5 MPSF.
Stanford's offensive struggled, hitting just .141 – its lowest output of the season. GCU turned in a .400 clip and had a 7.5 to 1.0 advantage in blocks. The Lopes limited the Cardinal to 25 kills for the match, holding a 24-17 edge in digs and had six aces to three by Stanford.
Junior outside hitter Will Rottman led the team with eight kills, two digs and an ace. Junior outside hitter Kevin Lamp tallied five kills and a pair of aces.
Junior setter Nathan Lietzke totaled 20 assists to go with four digs and two kills. Libero Justin Lui collected three digs and had no reception errors on 11 attempts.
Stanford hit .350 in the opening set, siding out at 72 percent. The Cardinal offense then stalled in the remaining two sets, hitting .050 in the second and .065 in the third.
Stanford middle blockers Nathaniel Gates and Ethan Hill combined for seven kills, but neither registered a block on Thursday. Opposite Luke Turner was held to just two kills, while Aidan Peters added a kill, a block and two digs off the bench.
Grand Canyon was led by Camden Gianni's 13 kills on a .478 attack percentage. The outside hitter also had two aces, two blocks and two digs for the Lopes. Christian Janke posted nine kills on .467 hitting, three aces and four digs.
Stanford and Grand Canyon square off again on Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.