Grand Canyon University Athletics
Photo by: Scott Larson
May, June held promise for Lopes
7/1/2020 7:00:00 AM | General, Beach Volleyball
Spring sports were poised for postseason breakthroughs
The NCAA spring season was supposed to end last week with the College World Series Finals.
It actually ended 16 weeks ago, just as the GCU basketball teams hit Las Vegas for the WAC Basketball Tournament but with several weeks of play and promising postseasons remaining for the Lopes' spring teams.
The GCU men's and women's golf, softball and women's tennis teams were about to play weekend events in Phoenix. Baseball was called back as it headed from Arkansas to Baylor, just as a men's volleyball East Coast weekend trip was canceled on its travel day.
All of them, along with the tennis teams, had good reason to look ahead to conference tournaments in April and May but no team was set up quite as well as Lopes beach volleyball.
In a sport with an eight-team NCAA tournament, GCU beach volleyball ranked seventh in the nation when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered the season. The Lopes were 10-2 and had started that month with a victory against USC, which ended the season at No. 5.
"I don't think I felt like doing much for a couple of weeks," said Lopes head coach Kristen Rohr, still crushed by missing recruiting and clinics now. "I was sad for the athletes and what they'd put in to get to that point. It was disappointing that it got taken away and it was overwhelming with everything going on in the world."
This was more than a breakthrough season. It was the senior season for Rohr's first recruiting class at GCU. Of the five, only Hannah Towne is returning to repeat her senior year with Jessica Stansfield, Anna Unnasch and Devonne Ryter beginning professional careers and Micaela Mirabal returning to Texas to pursue a graduate degree.
The program's stature was only confirmed when Bella Bauman and Teagan DeFalco were selected to the U.S. Beach Collegiate National Team in May, when they were hoping to be in Alabama for the NCAA tournament. But in a sport with no automatic tourney bids, GCU's abbreviated national splash should carry weight for future selection committees.
"I know what our capability was and what we expected," Rohr said. "It is exciting to think about the early wins and how we were positioned to finish in the top eight. The most exciting part for me was to see how our juniors had grown since their freshman year with this amazing family environment they've created.
"We've had times in the past when we were so close but couldn't make it happen. This season proved to them that we can do this."
Many similar feelings resonated through the Lopes teams who were clicking.
The promise of baseball being on the verge of a breakthrough to an NCAA regional bid in late May started to show when the Lopes opened the season with a series win against No. 22 Oklahoma State and continued with a pitching staff maintaining a 3.44 earned run average.
"Initially, when this first began, we were hopeful and I think we were all optimistic that it would be a short period of time," GCU baseball head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "Now we've got to the point where the season was completely canceled. You were just really fearful of what was down the road. It's been a tough time for everybody, the country, the world trying to navigate through this.
"We're all really itching to get back on the field and hear the sound of a ball in a mitt. Just baseball, It'll come back. We've just got to be patient and be smart about this."
The men's volleyball team was another NCAA tournament hopeful with a No. 11 national ranking when the season ended. Only seven teams reach the NCAAs but the Lopes had a chance at an automatic conference bid as a second-place team or one of two at-large selections. Even as a team with underclassmen as its top six scorers, GCU recorded wins against three teams in the final top-10 poll (No. 6 UC San Diego, No. 8 Pepperdine and No. 9 UCLA).
There was optimism for men's golf, which had four players rank among the conference's nine lowest scoring averages this season. The WAC Championships were going to be played in their backyard in Maricopa last month.
Women's golf was headed to Texas for its conference tournament but held the same optimism for a second NCAA regional bid with Siripatsorn Patchana leading the WAC in scoring average and teammates Carmen Belmonte and Payton Fehringer ranking fourth and sixth.
The track and field program always has room for more hardware and figured to garner more at the outdoor conference championships in May and perhaps send individuals to the NCAA West Preliminary Round again. The men projected to do well based on winning the WAC indoor title in March and the women were set to chase a third consecutive WAC outdoor championship.
The softball team was amid a 2-0 start to the GCU Invitational and was about to test its improved play against Ohio State at home when the season ended. The Lopes scored 32 runs in their final three games, giving hope that they could take advantage of hosting the WAC Tournament in May.
The tennis program, highlighted by 2019 WAC Player of the Year Lorenzo Fucile, was hoping to recapture the men's magic for a repeat WAC Tournament win when both teams headed to Kansas City.
It proved to be the final season for head coach Greg Prudhomme to have both of his daughters in the program. Autum will return as a player but Tatum, his former player and two-year graduate assistant, became the head tennis professional at Desert Highlands Racquet Club in Scottsdale.
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It actually ended 16 weeks ago, just as the GCU basketball teams hit Las Vegas for the WAC Basketball Tournament but with several weeks of play and promising postseasons remaining for the Lopes' spring teams.
The GCU men's and women's golf, softball and women's tennis teams were about to play weekend events in Phoenix. Baseball was called back as it headed from Arkansas to Baylor, just as a men's volleyball East Coast weekend trip was canceled on its travel day.
All of them, along with the tennis teams, had good reason to look ahead to conference tournaments in April and May but no team was set up quite as well as Lopes beach volleyball.
In a sport with an eight-team NCAA tournament, GCU beach volleyball ranked seventh in the nation when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered the season. The Lopes were 10-2 and had started that month with a victory against USC, which ended the season at No. 5.
"I don't think I felt like doing much for a couple of weeks," said Lopes head coach Kristen Rohr, still crushed by missing recruiting and clinics now. "I was sad for the athletes and what they'd put in to get to that point. It was disappointing that it got taken away and it was overwhelming with everything going on in the world."This was more than a breakthrough season. It was the senior season for Rohr's first recruiting class at GCU. Of the five, only Hannah Towne is returning to repeat her senior year with Jessica Stansfield, Anna Unnasch and Devonne Ryter beginning professional careers and Micaela Mirabal returning to Texas to pursue a graduate degree.
The program's stature was only confirmed when Bella Bauman and Teagan DeFalco were selected to the U.S. Beach Collegiate National Team in May, when they were hoping to be in Alabama for the NCAA tournament. But in a sport with no automatic tourney bids, GCU's abbreviated national splash should carry weight for future selection committees.
"I know what our capability was and what we expected," Rohr said. "It is exciting to think about the early wins and how we were positioned to finish in the top eight. The most exciting part for me was to see how our juniors had grown since their freshman year with this amazing family environment they've created.
"We've had times in the past when we were so close but couldn't make it happen. This season proved to them that we can do this."
Many similar feelings resonated through the Lopes teams who were clicking.
The promise of baseball being on the verge of a breakthrough to an NCAA regional bid in late May started to show when the Lopes opened the season with a series win against No. 22 Oklahoma State and continued with a pitching staff maintaining a 3.44 earned run average.
"Initially, when this first began, we were hopeful and I think we were all optimistic that it would be a short period of time," GCU baseball head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "Now we've got to the point where the season was completely canceled. You were just really fearful of what was down the road. It's been a tough time for everybody, the country, the world trying to navigate through this.
"We're all really itching to get back on the field and hear the sound of a ball in a mitt. Just baseball, It'll come back. We've just got to be patient and be smart about this."
The men's volleyball team was another NCAA tournament hopeful with a No. 11 national ranking when the season ended. Only seven teams reach the NCAAs but the Lopes had a chance at an automatic conference bid as a second-place team or one of two at-large selections. Even as a team with underclassmen as its top six scorers, GCU recorded wins against three teams in the final top-10 poll (No. 6 UC San Diego, No. 8 Pepperdine and No. 9 UCLA).
There was optimism for men's golf, which had four players rank among the conference's nine lowest scoring averages this season. The WAC Championships were going to be played in their backyard in Maricopa last month.
Women's golf was headed to Texas for its conference tournament but held the same optimism for a second NCAA regional bid with Siripatsorn Patchana leading the WAC in scoring average and teammates Carmen Belmonte and Payton Fehringer ranking fourth and sixth.
The track and field program always has room for more hardware and figured to garner more at the outdoor conference championships in May and perhaps send individuals to the NCAA West Preliminary Round again. The men projected to do well based on winning the WAC indoor title in March and the women were set to chase a third consecutive WAC outdoor championship.
The softball team was amid a 2-0 start to the GCU Invitational and was about to test its improved play against Ohio State at home when the season ended. The Lopes scored 32 runs in their final three games, giving hope that they could take advantage of hosting the WAC Tournament in May.
The tennis program, highlighted by 2019 WAC Player of the Year Lorenzo Fucile, was hoping to recapture the men's magic for a repeat WAC Tournament win when both teams headed to Kansas City.
It proved to be the final season for head coach Greg Prudhomme to have both of his daughters in the program. Autum will return as a player but Tatum, his former player and two-year graduate assistant, became the head tennis professional at Desert Highlands Racquet Club in Scottsdale.
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Players Mentioned
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