Season of bests, firsts

After showing flashes of brilliance with two early-season victories over top-25 opponents, the Grand Canyon men's soccer team really hit its stride late in the season. The Lopes won their final three regular season games before sweeping their way through the WAC Tournament to clinch the program's first Division I NCAA tournament appearance.

Here's a look at the 2018 Lopes and their historic season by the numbers.

7	With GCU's NCAA tournament game officially going down as a tie, the Lopes ended the season with a seven-game unbeaten streak. That streak ranks as the fourth longest active streak in the country, behind St. Mary's (24) and 2018 College Cup participants Indiana (12) and Akron (8).
.79	The Lopes ranked 25th nationally in team goals against average, the sport's primary defensive metric. GCU allowed just .79 goals on average for every 90 minutes of play. After ranking 181st in the same statistic one year ago, the Lopes' 156-spot improvement from 2017 was the nation's largest jump.
499	Head coach Schellas Hyndman sits at 499 career wins, the fifth most in NCAA Division I men's soccer history. Hyndman will look to join the 500-win club next season.
.860	Freshman goalkeeper George Tasouris ended the season with the nation's second-best save percentage, putting a stop to 92 of the 107 on-target shots he faced. Tasouris' save percentage set a WAC record, breaking the 1998 mark of .850 set by Tulsa's Jeff McKeever.
46	The Lopes finished the season ranked No. 46 in the NCAA's RPI rankings, shattering the program's previous top finish of 139 in 2016. Following a 3-0 WAC Tournament, GCU jumped 45 spots in the final set of rankings.
9	GCU won nine games via the shutout which tied for 17th in the nation. It was the most shutout wins in a season for the Lopes since recording 10 in 2010.
5	After not recording a victory against a top-25 opponent in their first five Division I seasons, the Lopes made up for lost time with a perfect 5-0 mark against top-25 teams this season. GCU defeated No. 12 Wisconsin, No. 20 Creighton, No. 25 Seattle U and Air Force twice (at No. 8 and No. 13).
2,264	Spurred by an emphatic Havocs student section, an average of 2,264 fans attended GCU's nine home matches. That was the eighth-highest average attendance in the nation, marking the second time in the past three seasons that GCU cracked the top 10. GCU also hosted the fourth-largest crowd of the NCAA season when 6,648 fans watched its season-opening win over No. 12 Wisconsin at GCU Stadium.
0	GCU did not allow a goal during its three WAC Tournament games. The Lopes became the first team to claim the WAC Tournament title without allowing a goal since the tournament expanded beyond a single championship game in 1997.
32	As a head coach, Hyndman has led his team to the NCAA tournament in 32 of the 34 years that his teams were postseason-eligible. "This one is really quite special," Hyndman said of leading GCU to its first Division I NCAA tournament. "It's kind of like raising a child. You can see it developing. You continue to encourage and develop."
71.3	GCU loses five seniors, including several key members of the WAC title squad, but 71.3 percent of this year's minutes were played by underclassmen.
1	The Lopes won their first WAC Championship and advanced to their first Division I NCAA tournament.

PARTING QUOTES

"We always talk about establishing a culture and becoming a tight-knit team and winning games. Those are all great and wonderful words. But you can't establish a culture and a tradition until you start to win and you know what it takes to win. Then you hope the players you bring in have that type of mentality. I'm very pleased with what the boys got done. The university should be awfully proud of it. We played with class, we played good soccer, and I think we were as entertaining as we can be." - head coach Schellas Hyndman

"We did very well this year. We put the school on the map. We developed a fighting mentality on this team. Winning and winning six games in a row has created a culture here." - Alex Ramirez, senior defender

Grand Canyon University Athletics

7

.79

499

.860

46

9

5

2,264

0

32

71.3

1

PARTING QUOTES

Players Mentioned

Alex Ramirez

George Tasouris

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