CHICAGO – The Grand Canyon women's soccer team kicked off a two-game road trip to Chicago State with a 6-1 win on Thursday.
The Lopes (4-8, 4-4 WAC) dominated the offensive side, outshooting Chicago State 20-3 as well as drawing seven corners. The six goals scored by GCU were the most in a game since the Lopes won 7-0 against Chicago State in October of 2017.
Sophomore forward
Dani Babb, who scored a hat trick against Chicago State (0-12, 0-10 WAC) last season in Phoenix, picked up right where she left off with two goals on Thursday.
Babb bookended GCU's scoring frenzy with goals in the 14th and 87th minutes. On her first goal, sophomore forward
Lindsey Prokop crossed a ball into the middle of the box to sophomore forward
Raeanne Jones, who then flicked it to Babb on the back side of the goal. On her second goal Babb cut into the box and finished a point blank shot after a cross from the right side of the field from sophomore forward
Jaycee Iranshad.
After assisting on the first goal, Jones was able to find the back of the net with her own goal in the 23rd minute. Freshman midfielder
Reese Mendenhall played a through ball to Jones, who danced around the CSU goalie and finished the empty-net shot.
Leading 2-0 at halftime, the Lopes poured it on in the second half with four more goals on 11 shots. Senior defender
Hannah Edwards, in her 69th career game, scored her first career goal in the 49th minute, heading a ball into the bottom left corner of the goal after a corner kick from freshman midfielder Breanna Alderson.
Chicago State scored its first home goal of the season in the 61st minute, but the Lopes answered back less than eight minutes later with Iranshad's team-leading fifth goal in the 70th minute off an assist from Babb.
The Lopes weren't done scoring as senior forward
Camryn Larson came off the bench to score her third goal of the season in the 83rd off assists from junior defender
Perri Belzer and senior midfielder
Haley Bostard. Babb scored her second goal four minutes later.
Iranshad led the team with four shots, including three shots on goal, while freshman goalkeeper
Jordan Ferguson won her third match with one save on three Chicago State shots.
The Lopes will look for the series sweep of the Cougars on Saturday. The match will start at 11 a.m. (Phoenix time).