First MW road trip takes Lopes to Reno, San José

Grand Canyon hits the road to take on Nevada and San José State in the Lopes' Mountain West road trip.

The GCU-Air Force match was the first Lopes match in which both teams scored multiple times in one half since GCU and Kansas City played in 2013.
GCU head coach Chris Cissell won his 450th career match across men's and women's college soccer.
Cissell earned his 65th all-time win at GCU with the victory over Northern Arizona two weeks ago, passing Stevie Gill (2008-15) as the winningest coach in program history. Cissell has the most wins in four programs. (GCU, Kansas City and William Jewell men and women).
Lopes sophomore forward Ellie Johannes won Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week for Week 6 after her game-winning goal at Northern Arizona.
Johannes has recorded a point in four consecutive matches, with three goals and two assists.
GCU sophomore forward Reese Clem recorded GCU's first career "brace" on Sunday night vs Air Force. She now has three goals, as does Johannes and sophomore midfielder Tatum Hofstetter.
Junior goalkeeper Emma Knack is third in the nation in saves with 77, and fifth in the country in saves per match (7.7). She holds the top three MW single-match totals this season (11 twice and 16).
Knack took home MW Defensive Player of the Week for Week 3 after shutting out Portland State and Oregon on the road. Knack has five shutouts this season.
Loeps senior midifelder AJ Loera is two assists away from the program's all-time record set by Marleen Schimmer and Leah Pirro (18).

Grand Canyon split its opening weekend in Mountain West play, losing 2-1 to San Diego State and beating Air Force 4-2 at home.
Hofstetter scored the lone Lopes goal in the second half, before the Aztecs rattled off two late scores to steal the match in Phoenix.
The Lopes scored their most goals in a match this season en route to a 4-2 win over Air Force on Sunday. The win marked GCU's first MW win for the athletics program.

Grand Canyon joins the Mountain West this fall, making the Lopes the 13th team in the conference for the 2025 season.
Each team in the MW will play 10 conference matches (five home, five away) over a six-week period.
The top six teams will make the Mountain West Championship in Boise, Idaho, with the tournament winner collecting an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
GCU enters Week 8 tied for sixth in the MW standings at 1-1.
There are no 2-0 teams after the first week of conference play.
Four teams are tied for first in the MW at 1-0-1, including San Diego State with a win against GCU and a tie at Colorado College.

This is the third meeting between Nevada and GCU.
The Lopes beat Nevada 1-0 in Reno last season, thanks to an Ellie Crisler goal and defensive shutout.
The Wolf Pack is 1-7-2 this season with its solo win coming at Northern Arizona.
This is the first-ever meeting between San José State and GCU.
San José State also sits at 1-7-2 on the year with its win coming against UC Davis.
The Spartans lost to a common opponent of GCU's in CSUN, 1-0.

Grand Canyon hits the road for another two road MW matches next week at New Mexico (Oct. 9) and UNLV (Oct. 12).
Heading into Week 8, New Mexico is 5-2-2 (1-0 MW) and UNLV is 3-6-2 (1-0-1 MW).

Grand Canyon University Athletics