LAKEWOOD, NJ (Oct. 7, 2025) - Georgian Court Volleyball had lost four straight with one of the leaders in the CACC coming to Lakewood in Holy Family. The Lions put an end to their losing streak and put together one of their best games of the season with a 3-1 win over the Tigers. The win moves GCU to 2-3 in the CACC.

How it Happened
• The Lions had a tremendous night hitting the ball. They connected on 47 kills against just nine errors for a .365 attack percentage. Holy Family hit just .151 with 27 errors.
• GCU also put back 13 blocks on defense while the Tigers managed just a pair.
• Holy Family, one of the stronger serving teams in the country got their points on the serve, but GCU held them to 10 with six errors. The Lions landed five aces against eight serving errors.
• Dig numbers were even with Holy Family picking up 44 and the Lions 43.
• The Lions had a sideout percentage at 55% or better in the three sets they won.

Set 1
• The night started out well for the Lions who scored six of the first seven points. Brooke Bowbliss had two kills and a block to get the Lions going.
• Holy Family never recovered from the early hole they dug themselves. They were able to cut the Lion lead to two, 7-5, but GCU rattled off four straight with two kills, a block and an ace.
• Another extended run gave the Lions their largest lead, 17-9.
• The Tigers got hot late with a 5-0 stretch to put a bit of a scare into GCU at 22-19, but the Lions responded with a kill from Ava Churnesky and consecutive blocks from Emma Gildea and Addison Wellington to finish off set one, 25-19.
Set 2
• The second set saw some jockying back-and-forth at the beginning. 
• Tied at seven, GCU took the lead for good when Churnesky landed a kill. That started a 7-1 stretch for the Lions who suddenly found themselves up 14-8.
• From there each team scored 11 points the rest of the set, going back-and-forth, but that 7-1 run proved to be the difference as GCU went up 2-0 with another 25-19 set win.
• GCU hit 14 kills against just two errors in the set.
Set 3
• It looked like GCU was on their way to a sweep, leading 4-1, but the Tigers didn't go down easy.
• The Lions were still up three, 7-4, following back-to-back Carmen Rivera service aces.
• But after that it was all Holy Family. They rallied to tie the match at nine, then down by one, 12-11, finished the set scoring 14 of the final 16 points.
• HFU hit five services aces in the set and forced a fourth set with a 25-14 win.
Set 4
• Georgian Court rallied in set four after dropping the third.
• The Lions hit .444 with 14 kills and two errors on just 27 attacks.
• Emma Gildea got it started with a kill and the Lions never trailed. They went up 5-1 and 9-3 and were cruising after that.
• Holy Family tried to make a comeback in the middle of the set. They pulled to within four, 14-10, prompting a GCU timeout. Following the break, the Tigers gave the ball back to the Lions on service error and that started a 5-0 Lion run that saw them go up 19-10 and that put the set away.
• The Lions scored the final three points getting two kills from Genesis Simanca and the final one from Iciar Zayas for a 25-13 win.

Lion Stat Leaders
• Ava Churnesky led GCU hitting 12 kills.
• Genesis Simanca landed 11 while hitting .391.
• Brooke Bowbliss had a double-double with 11 kills and 16 assists. She added four digs and seven blocks as well.
• Emma Gildea had eight blocks with two kills.
• Addison Wellington hit .556 with five kills and no errors on nine attempts. She added four blocks as well.
• Iciar Zayas passed out 22 assists with four digs.
• Carmen Rivera led the defense with 24 digs. She even scored two service aces and two kills. 

For the Tigers
• Shelby Kinzer had a big night with a game-high 23 kills on 52 attempts. She was also 20-21 on service reception with five digs and four aces.
• Mia Wise passed out 42 assists with five digs.
• Mackenzie Layton added nine kills.
• Morgan Marziani-Radomski had a team-best 12 digs.

News and Notes
• This was just the second game this season for GCU to end in four sets in their 16th match. 
• The Lions .365 attack percentage is their highest in a match this season, as are their 13 blocks. 
• Emma Gildea surpassed 250 career points. 
• Brooke Bowbliss surpassed 100 assists this season. 
• GCU pulls to within one in the all-time series with the Tigers (in the NCAA-era) to 24-25. The teams have split each of the last five matches. 
• In the weird stat department, four different Lions had exactly four digs. Three others had exactly one dig. And Carmen Rivera had more than all of them combined with 24.

Up Next
• Georgian Court goes on the road to take on Post who they defeated in the CACC Tournament finals a year ago. That match is Saturday, Oct. 11 at 1 pm.