Preparation for seasons to come.

The Grand Canyon University Women's Club Volleyball team finished out its competition schedule with strong performances against Ottawa University and Arizona State University, as well as a second appearance at the Arizona Region Tournament. The Lopes made the most of out their competition with multiple tight three-set victories and losses.

GCU 2, Ottawa 1

The Lopes finished a four-week league with Ottawa University on a high note, beating the Spirit in three sets.

"It was a great experience and opportunity for our girls – especially with the limited competition that we were allowed to have," said Lopes' Head Coach Kristine Naber. "I'm grateful for Ottawa being able to open up their gym and schedule the games."

GCU ended the series with a 6-1 overall record over Ottawa – their only blemish coming from a 2-0 loss in the third week.

"Over the course of the four weeks, we wanted to take the girls in different teams and give them a different atmosphere so that they could get off campus and compete with someone else on the other side of the net instead of a GCU team," said Naber. "It was good for the girls and was a positive experience for everyone."

GCU splits with ASU

Following their matches against Ottawa, GCU took two teams to compete against Arizona State. Each GCU team faced ASU Team A and ASU Team B, splitting the matches 2-2.

Both Lopes' teams had two-set victories over ASU B. GCU Team B fell to ASU A in two sets while GCU Team A was defeated 17-15 in the third set.

"The three times that we've played ASU A, it's always been in three sets and a competitive match," said Naber. "If you put us against each other on any given day, it's going to flip-flop who wins, so really it comes down to who makes less errors and who can terminate balls."

Arizona Region Tournament

GCU competed for the second time in an adult tournament hosted by the Arizona Region of USA Volleyball. The Lopes brought three teams, competing in four matches each.  After not losing a match all day, the "GCU Lopes" team made it to the championship match, once again suffering a tight 17-15 loss in the third set to Sandy AZ. 

"Because we have had more competition in the last month, I feel like we're finding out what our roles are and are gelling and playing well with each other, so that's been really fun to see," Naber said.