SEATTLE – The Grand Canyon women's soccer team lost a 3-2 double-overtime heartbreaker to No. 1 seed Utah Valley in a Friday night semifinal at the WAC Tournament.
The fifth-seeded Lopes (11-7-2) had the regular-season champion on the ropes with junior forward
Bekah Valdez scoring two first-half goals 61 seconds apart, but Utah Valley (14-3-3) scored three unanswered goals, including the game-winner when GCU was a player down in the 108th minute.
"Obviously, that was a devastating loss," Lopes head coach
Chris Cissell said. "I thought we played unbelievable in the first half to take a 2-0 lead on a fantastic Utah Valley team who deserves to be conference champs this year. They are receiving votes in the top 25 and they showed it in their comeback. I thought the wind played a huge factor with all five goals coming on the same side."
The Lopes came out strong after a 3-0 win over Utah Tech in Wednesday's first round and took the lead 20 minutes into Friday's match at Seattle U. Redshirt freshman
Leah Pirro dispossessed Utah Valley defender Nicole Olanda and immediately found Valdez streaking into the box. The junior forward fired a tight-angle shot on her right foot and buried the ball into the right-side netting for a 1-0 lead.
Valdez and Pirro weren't done linking up. Just 61 seconds later, the duo connected again to give GCU a 2-0 lead. Pirro gained possession near midfield and connected with Valdez on a long pass down the left side. Valdez sidestepped the Wolverines goalkeeper and chipped a left-footed shot into the net.
"Bekah's goals were both fantastic and ones that she has the ability to score," Cissell added. "She's had a really good season and is a fantastic dribbler when she gets isolated one-on-one on the outside. And Leah had two great assists and had a great season for us playing as the attacking midfielder."
With a 2-0 lead, the Lopes defended well over the final 15 minutes of the first half and limited Utah Valley to just four shots with GCU graduate goalkeeper
Shantel Hutton recording a pair of saves.
That changed in the second half, when Utah Valley was aggressive in possession and kept the ball in GCU's defensive half for most of the period. In the 64th minute, Utah Valley's Faith Weber fired a low shot that was bobbled by Hutton before it crossed over the goal line to cut the Lopes lead to 2-1.
GCU defended for 20 more minutes against a barrage of Utah Valley shots (18 in the second half) before the Wolverines scored the equalizer in the 84th minute.
Tied at 2-2, the match advanced to two 10-minute periods of overtime, a first for each team after the extra period was dissolved by the NCAA for the regular season.
Both teams tallied two shots and one on goal in the first 10-minute period but neither scored. In the second overtime period, Utah Valley again pressed the Lopes on the offensive end and freshman midfielder
AJ Loera picked up her second yellow card in the 104th minute to put GCU down to 10 players.
Less than two minutes away from deciding the match on penalty kicks, Utah Valley broke through for Webber's left-footed game-winner from the top of the 18-yard box.
It was only GCU's second loss of its final 10 matches with both coming by one goal. The Lopes outscored opponents 28-8 during that 10-game stretch.
"It was a good season overall," Cissell said. "We finished 11-7-2 and had some fun things happen this year. We beat Arizona in front of 3,200 fans at home, along with a win over New Mexico. We had a slow start in the WAC but really finished the season strong.
"The other thing that is exciting for us as a coaching staff, our fans and the entire soccer family is pretty much everybody is able to come back next year and give it another go. I'm sure we'll learn from this and be even better next year."