Improved offense gives GCU balance entering season

Thursday, August 14

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

UC Irvine

Tickets

Photo by: Jayden Todd

8/14/2025 6:30:00 PM | Women's Soccer, Paul Coro

Lopes take new-look starting lineup to home pitch for Thursday night opener

By: Paul Coro

With returning players accounting for 38% of last season's starts, it could have been difficult for Grand Canyon women's soccer to find its footing heading into this season.

But with a rock-solid culture established after the four most successful seasons in program history, the Lopes did not need to find their balance. GCU created it.

When the Lopes open the season against UC Irvine at 7 p.m. Thursday in GCU Stadium, their play projects to be as balanced as their roster.

After inheriting a program with seven consecutive losing seasons and going 52-22-11 in his past four seasons at the helm, Lopes head coach Chris Cissell kicks off GCU's Mountain West era with a team of 15 returnees and 15 newcomers.

That infusion of seven transfers and eight freshmen provided yin to the existing yang, making the Lopes more balanced with improved offense and the depth to use as many as 20 players in a match.

"I think we are going to be very good defensively, but I also feel like we've got more offensive firepower that we didn't have last year," said Cissell, who guided GCU to its first NCAA Tournament appearances in 2021 and 2023. "What I like is the full balance with this team. We're going to be able to attack from the back. We have some fast, athletic outside backs that will get forward and start the attack."

That defense was the bedrock of last season's team, when a senior-laden, physical back line held opponents to less than a goal per game for the second consecutive season.

That unit looks dramatically different, although senior Jayden Sanders is a returning starter at right back. Junior Madison Hamm, with 13 starts last season, shifts to center back with freshman and Phoenix native Elle Stanley while sophomore Samantha Amato takes over at left center back.

"They are very technical and skilled," Cissell said of the revamped look. "They're very good at passing and attacking out of the back."

A new goalkeeper lurks behind them with 5-foot-10 junior Emma Knack looking able to replace DeAira Jackson, last season's WAC Goalkeeper of the Year. Knack started 12 games as a South Dakota State sophomore last season with a 0.74 goals against average.

"Her distribution out of the back is just amazing," Cissell said of Knack. "She's very good with both feet. She can really ping it out there. She can hit the outside backs as they are getting forward. She's very comfortable with the ball, to where it allows us to pass it back to her more."

Fourth-year starter AJ Loera headlines the midfield after a pair of all-conference seasons. She is the team's returning leading scorer after tying for the team lead in goals (three) and leading in assists (five).

After averaging 1.25 goals last season, GCU aims to restore the firepower of an offense that ranked eighth, 33rd and 15th nationally for scoring in Cissell's previous three Lopes seasons.

AJ Loera

"I think this year's bonds are even better than last season, and we've barely known half of our team for two months," Loera said. "We're so solid. We have so many girls who can finish. It's a competition every day because we're all fighting and play so well together."

Loera will be flanked in the starting midfield by sophomore Sabrina Guzman, the team's most improved player after logging 66 minutes as a freshman, and freshman Tatum Hofstetter of nearby Scottsdale.

"I love the culture of the team," Hofstetter said. "We have the atmosphere. With this group of girls, we all connect and I think that translates to the field. I'm excited to see how we're going to do, and I think we're going to make it really far."

The possession-oriented Lopes expect to build up and out, using the ground and unselfishness to set up finishes for their frontline. Sophomore center forward Ellie Johannes (Indiana transfer) and junior left forward Neve Renwick (Auburn transfer) each made the conference coaches' MW Player Watch List with Loera.

"We are definitely a team that will be more potent in the attacking third," Cissell said.

GCU trio

Sophomore Reese Clem returns to the front line to start on the right side, but the Lopes can bring in even more scoring weapons with reserves such as seniors Hannah Smith and Payton Fisher on the wings or freshmen Lauren Knox, who redshirted last season, and Maya Paeske at the center of the attack.

"The wingers are really fast and beat people around the edge," Cissell said. "They can take people one on one. If they get service in the box, they can finish."

The theme of freshmen earning large roles could put as many as seven of them into season-opening action with Taylor Gerst of the St. Louis area and Mai-Helen Nguyen Todnem of Norway on defense and Gilbert Christian High School graduate Caprice Chiuchiolo and Rosalyn Wisniew-Colwell of San Diego as center midfielders.

"Any minutes you get in your freshman year is a bonus," said Cissell, who substituted six freshmen at the first break of GCU's exhibition game last week. "If you're starting or one of the first ones off the bench, that is amazing."

The talented influx is helping to create a competitive daily environment with the program's leadership council carrying over the renown team culture.

"The coaching staff does an amazing job of unifying us and making us feel very family-oriented," Johannes said. "This team has a culture that I've never experienced before. We're all close on and off this field. Our closeness translates to the field, and we're able to work together better and for one another."

In a preseason poll, the Mountain West coaches picked GCU fifth in a 13-member conference that will send six teams to the MW Championship on Nov. 2-8 at Boise State.

The road there starts with consecutive Thursday matches against UC Irvine (home) and Cal State Northridge (away) before a trip to Portland State and Oregon to close the schedule's first month.

Mountain West play will start Sept. 25 at home against San Diego State.

"We want a ring," Loera said. "We want to make history."