10-13-07

Grand Canyon falls in 5 to Dixie St

When Grand Canyon went for the kill, Dixie State had the stopper.

GCU’s bid to sweep its first Pacific West Conference series fell short Saturday night in a five-game loss to Dixie State College in Antelope Gymnasium. The Antelopes fell 32-30, 17-30, 31-29, 20-30, 15-7 in front of roughly 200 fans on a night GCU coach Kris Naber was presented the game ball from her 200th career win on Friday.

Grand Canyon (7-13, 3-5 PacWest) overcame a 16-4 deficit in Game 3, and eventually went ahead 26-24 on a Megan Toth kill. But the ’Lopes missed out on a crucial serve with the score knotted at 29, and then Dixie’s Shalie Flannery banged home a kill to give the Rebels (5-18, 3-6) a 2-1 match lead.

GCU raced to a 20-12 lead in Game 4 on an Ashley Bright kill, and two Shea Robinson kills extended the Antelopes lead to 25-14 en route to tying the match at two games apiece.

But when the Antelopes needed to respond in Game 5, they couldn’t come up with the answers, hitting -.167 on four kills and seven errors.

Dana Edington pounded 20 kills and had 19 digs, and Audra Slemmer had 51 assists. Edington eclipsed the 300-kill plateau for the second straight season. A sophomore, she now has 318 this season.

Megan Toth had 12 kills and 19 digs.

Flannery had 18 kills, and Katelyn Gatson 10 for Dixie, which hit .308 in the last game to split the season series with GCU, 2-2.

Grand Canyon is off until Oct. 23 when it plays at Chaminade in Honolulu as part of a four-match stretch.

GCU’s last home match is Nov. 9 against Embry Riddle at 7 p.m.