Regular season opens at home vs. Arizona Christian

Monday, Nov. 7 \| 4 p.m. \| GCU Arena \| Phoenix, Ariz.

	ARIZONA CHRISTIAN FIRESTORM (0-1)	at	GRAND CANYON LOPES (0-0)

WATCH: ESPN+ \| STATS: View

The Lopes open the regular season at home with crosstown opponent Arizona Christian.
The game is the first of a doubleheader at GCU Arena on Monday, with the men's squad opening up their regular season vs. Montana State following the conclusion of the 4 p.m. women's game.
This is the third straight season that the Lopes have hosted the Firestorm and the second consecutive matchup being the season opener.

The Lopes bring in 10 new faces to the team this season with five being transfers.
The transfers include graduate power forward Evan Zars (Western Illinois), junior guard Sydney Palma (California Baptist), junior power forward Olivia Lane (North Dakota), junior point guard Maisa Marcal (Independence Community College) and sophomore point guard Aaliyah Collins (Chicago State).
Of the 15 players on the roster, nine are underclassmen, five of which are freshmen.
Five players return from last season's team, led by junior guard Tiarra Brown, who finished last season averaging 9.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.9 steals per game.

The Lopes began Year 35 overall and Year 10 in the Division I era on Tuesday night with an exhibition match versus Western New Mexico. Head Coach Molly Miller enters her third season in Phoenix and ninth overall, owning a 40-17 record at GCU and 220-34 overall mark.
Miller enters the season ranked second among active coaches in winning percentage (.866), just .19 shy of UConn head coach Geno Auriemma.
GCU was picked third in the WAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, garnering 124 points and was one of three teams to receive first-place votes (two).
The conference selected Collins to the first team and Brown to the second team of Preseason All-WAC. Both finished in the top 10 in the conference last season in steals per game, with Collins recording 2.5 per game (third) Brown tallying 1.9 per contest (seventh).
The Lopes defeated Western New Mexico 91-56 in a Nov. 1 exhibition home match.

Concluding the 2021-22 season, seven players in the WAC finished with 200-plus rebounds for the season. GCU graduate transfer Evan Zars and junior transfer Olivia Lane grabbed 256 and 233 rebounds, respectively, and are the only WAC teammate duo to each have 200-plus rebounds heading into this season.

The Firestorm enter Monday at 0-1 after falling in its season opener at home to Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) 82-78.
Arizona Christian's Alyssa Alvarez had 22 points, five rebounds and three assists to lead the team in scoring.
Firestorm teammate Halle Payne grabbed seven rebounds and added 12 points and three assists.
Arizona Christian went 21-10 last season with a 10-8 Golden State Athletic Conference record. It tallied a 14-5 home record and a 7-4 record away from Glendale.

The Lopes earned their largest win of the series' history, winning 95-48 on Nov. 10, 2021, in the regular-season opener at GCU Arena.
Lopes guard Ja'Mya Powell-Smith scored 14 points with two rebounds and a steal.
GCU totaled 27 steals and forced 41 turnovers and scored at least 20 points in each quarter.

GCU will play at home again Saturday against Grambling State at 7 p.m. The game will stream on ESPN+.

Grand Canyon University Athletics