GCU men's volleyball coach Chad Speer has added three players to his 2010-11 recruiting class.
Two California junior college standouts and a player from the Belgium Youth National Team have signed national letters-of-intent to play at Grand Canyon next season.
Taylor Galliano is a 6-foot, 4-inch middle blocker from Irvine Valley Community
College. He has two years of eligibility remaining. This past season he ranked No. 1 in the California Community College Association in blocks at 1.63 per match. He was 15th in hitting percentage (.339) and averaged 2.45 kills per game for the top team in the Pacific Coast Athletic Association.
Jordon Tarantino is a 6-foot, 4-inch opposite who was 10th in California in kills (3.88) and fifth in service aces (.45). He also averaged .94 blocks. Tarantino will come to the Antelopes as a sophomore.
Ben Ponnet is a 6-foot, 5-inch outside hitter from Belgium, who plays for his country's youth national squad and will enter GCU as a freshman.
He is the second international player that has chosen to continue his volleyball career and education at GCU. Nick Jensen, from Denmark, was a sophomore on the 2010 squad.
GCU just finished its second season of men's volleyball and first in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, considered in the top two of NCAA men's volleyball conferences.
In efforts to compete with the best programs in the country, Grand Canyon plays one of the nation's most competitive schedules against the likes of Ohio State, UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, Ball State and Loyola-Chicago, just to name a few.
The 2010 season showed great improvement from the initial campaign as the team won 14 matches.