Lopes head north to Payson for WAC Championship

Throughout the regular season, the Grand Canyon women's golf team won a Division I-era program record of five tournament titles, finished top three in eight of 10 tournaments and consistently ranked in the Clippd Scoreboard top 85. Now, the Lopes head north to Payson, Arizona, for their biggest test to date at the WAC Championship with a chance to move onto the NCAA Regional for the second time in program history.

GCU is seeking its second WAC title since joining the WAC in 2013-14. The Lopes, who won in 2018, will field a team whose veteran leadership and poise has led them to yet another historic golf campaign.

The Lopes enter the tournament with a 140-19 record and nine top-five placements, with only one result outside the top 10. GCU began the fall season with a victory at the Timpanogos Collegiate Invitational in Provo, Utah, and then hoisted its second trophy at the Pat Lesser Harbottle Invitational in Lakewood, Washington, Three weeks later, its fall momentum carried over to the spring opener, when it won the BGSU Women's Intercollegiate, took second at the GCU Invitational and claimed the Women's Jackrabbit Invitational in a one-month stretch.

GCU heads approximately one hour and 45 minutes northeast of campus to Chaparral Pines Golf Course for the three-day championship. In four tournaments that have been held in Arizona this season, the Lopes have captured two tournament titles and finished in the top three in all four, most recently coming off a victory at the Bobcat Desert Classic in Goodyear.

The veteran starting five is led by a trio of seniors, including Constanza Guerrero, Carly Strole and Becca Tschetter. All three golfers consistently have been in the starting lineup since the beginning of the 2022-23 season and have been key pieces to back-to-back, record-performing campaigns.

The remaining starters include junior Leighton Shosted, who has three years of WAC-level experience at Utah Valley and GCU, has propelled the Lopes with consistent top-25 finishes, and sophomore Ryan Flynn, last season's WAC Freshman of the Year, has replicated her first-year success into her second collegiate season. Sophomore Ameilia Curtis placed 19th in her first collegiate start at the BGSU Women's Intercollegiate and will travel as a substitute for the Lopes.

GCU is ranked No. 83 by Scoreboard Clippd rankings (as of Thursday). The entire WAC Championship field includes No. 113 Abilene Christian, No. 117 Seattle U, No. 132 California Baptist, No. 184 UT Arlington, No. 187 Utah Valley, No. 193 Tarleton State, No. 198 Utah Tech, No. 202 Southern Utah, No. 237 Stephen F. Austin and No. 242 UT Rio Grande Valley.

Chaparral Pines is a par-71 course distanced at 6,235 yards. The course includes three par 5s, four par 3s and 11 par 4s. The Lopes will be first to tee off Friday at 9 a.m., with the final pairing scheduled to tee off at 9:40 a.m.

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Players Mentioned

Ryan Flynn

Constanza Guerrero

Leighton Shosted

Carly Strole

Becca Tschetter

Grand Canyon University Athletics