Lopes open home schedule against Evansville Thursday


Grand Canyon Lopes (0-3, 0-0 WAC)	vs.	(RV) Evansville Purple Aces (4-0, 0-0 Missouri Valley)	(23) Pacific Tigers (4-0, 0-0 WCC)
		Thur, Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. MST TV: YurView/ESPN3 Radio: Univision Arizona	Sun, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. MST
GCU Match Notes Media Guide		~~Game Notes~~ Live Stats Live Video	~~Game Notes~~ Live Stats Live Video

After beginning their season away from the desert heat for three games, the Grand Canyon Lopes will finally open GCU Stadium for the season when they welcome in Evansville (4-0) of the Missouri Valley Conference on Thursday night. Following Thursday's match, Grand Canyon will hit the road for the final time in September with a Sunday matchup against No. 23 Pacific. Both matches are set for a 7 p.m. MST kickoff.

Thursday's home opener is available on YurView Arizona (Ch. 4 / 1004 in Phoenix) as well as streaming on ESPN3, the WAC Digital Network and GCU.tv with Barry Buetel (play-by-play), soccer star Cobi Jones (analysis) and Kate Longworth (sideline). Additionally, Thursday's match will be available in Spanish on Univision Radio with Felipe Corral and Edgar Zambrano on the call.

While Thursday's home opener will offer a temporary reprieve from road travel, the theme of challenging early-season opponents continues. Both the Purple Aces and Tigers are receiving Top 25 consideration with Pacific coming in at No. 23. Of GCU's first five opponents in 2017, four of them currently are in the Top 25 or have received Top 25 votes.

Grand Canyon will look to continue a trend of success in home openers. Dating back to 2014, the Lopes have won three consecutive home openers including a momentous christening of GCU Stadium against UCF a year ago. All-time, the Lopes are 23-6-3 in home openers.

The Lopes are coming off of a tough defeat at the hands of Wisconsin over the weekend. The Badgers remained undefeated on the season by scoring in the first five minutes and not looking back. A bright spot in the 3-1 loss was Niki Jackson scoring his second goal of the season. True freshman Marco Afonso logged his first collegiate assist on a cross to Jackson.

Evansville is off to its best start since 2012 with a perfect 4-0 mark, recently claiming the title of a tournament it hosted. After opening the season with a 9-0 blowout of a Division III opponent, the Purple Aces have downed Marshall (1-0), Milwaukee (3-2) and Northern Illinois (4-1).

The Purple Aces went 10-8-3 last season, finishing third in the Missouri Valley Conference. Thursday's matchup is set to be the first meeting between the two programs.

Looking forward to Sunday's opponent, the Pacific Tigers are also 4-0 on the season. Pacific has defeated Sacramento State, Virginia Tech and James Madison on the road while also handling fellow WAC member, CSU Bakersfield, 5-2 at home. The Tigers will also face another WAC opponent in UNLV prior to Sunday's meeting with GCU.

A relatively new program, Pacific made a gigantic leap forward in the national landscape last year. The Tigers went 1-15-1 in 2015 before jumping to a 13-4-2 record and an NCAA Tournament victory last year.

Last time the Tigers and Lopes paired up, Pacific stole a late victory at GCU Stadium. The Tigers scored eight minutes into the first overtime period to win 2-1. GCU leads the all-time series 2-1.

Following this week's slate of matches, Grand Canyon will settle into Phoenix for nearly a month. It's a stretch of four straight home games, spanning Sept. 14 through Oct. 1, and including opponents UC Riverside, CSUN, Oral Roberts and the WAC opener against Houston Baptist.

For more GCU men's soccer news, notes and numbers, click here to view this week's match notes and click here to view the media guide.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Marco Afonso

Josh Drack

Niki Jackson

Evan Waldrep

Grand Canyon University Athletics