Lopes drop 1st conference match of season

Monday, October 21

Orem, Utah

5 p.m.

Grand Canyon

11-5-1, 5-1-0

Utah Valley

12-4-1, 5-0-0

Grand Canyon

Utah Valley

Photo by: Emily Munoz | UVU

10/21/2024 8:34:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Opportunity for bye in WAC tourney comes Saturday

By: Braden Dohrmann

OREM, Utah — Grand Canyon dropped its first conference match of the season Monday night at Utah Valley.

GCU (11-5-1, 5-1 WAC) went into Clyde Field with an opportunity to clinch the No. 1 seed in the WAC Tournament and at least a share of the WAC regular-season championship. Utah Valley (12-4-1, 6-0 WAC) entered in the exact same position and protected its home turf with a 3-0 win, its ninth consecutive victory for the nation's third-longest active winning streak.

The Lopes will face California Baptist on Saturday in Riverside in the final regular-season match for both teams. GCU can earn a first-round bye in next week's WAC Tournament with a win or a draw in Saturday's match.

Shut out for the fourth time this season, the Lopes took eight shots and put three on goal. GCU, whose five-match winning streak ended, has scored in just one of its losses this season.

After a well-defended first 30 minutes of the match, the Wolverines struck from the foot of their senior star Faith Webber. After a cross seemingly made it through the box with no damage done, GCU's backline missed on a clearance opportunity and Webber was there to take advantage before senior goalkeeper DeAira Jackson could recover. Webber also scored one of UVU's two second-half goals to put her goal total at 16 on the season.

"That was a tough night for our soccer family," Lopes head coach Chris Cissell said. "Utah Valley is a very good team, but I also don't feel like the score is truly indicative of the way the game was played. That is soccer."

Despite giving up three goals on the night, Jackson grabbed six saves while facing 17 shots from the Wolverines.

In the limited offensive opportunities the Lopes had, a lack of velocity and location foiled the shot attempts. GCU put pressure on late in the second half when down 1-0, looking to create an opportunity to even the score and escape with a tie. The tradeoff of the aggressive attack was Wolverines counters on the other end of the pitch.

"We made a coaching decision to go for it down 1-0," Cissell said. "We pushed numbers forward in hopes to tie the match up and tonight it just didn't work. Sometimes these tactics pay off, sometimes they don't. We knew we wanted to go for it on the road and had a lot of trust in our team."

GCU faces California Baptist (7-6-2, 3-3 WAC) on Saturday at 7 p.m. (Phoenix time) to finish out the regular season. It will be the Lopes' first time back on the pitch where it won the 2023 WAC Tournament. The match will be broadcast on ESPN+.