Completed Event: Softball versus UNLV on April 26, 2026 , Win , 4, to, 2
Softball
vs UNLV
W 4-2
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, May 15
Lincoln, Neb.
1 p.m.
Grand Canyon
vs
(2) Louisville
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
Top-25 matchup opens Lopes' revisit of toughest regional
5/14/2026 6:03:00 PM | Softball, Paul Coro
ESPNU airs No. 25 GCU vs. No. 24 Louisville at 1 p.m. Phoeinx time Friday
LINCOLN, Neb. – If the NCAA Lincoln Regional was a local crop of corn, the field would be full of tall, robust stalks.
For the second consecutive year, Grand Canyon was planted in the only regional with three top-25 teams … despite being one of those ranked teams again. Punching GCU's first Super Regional ticket would require ousting the nation's No. 1 team, Nebraska, at its scarlet-clad home, Bowlin Stadium, but the Lopes have to deal with the other ranked ladies in red from No. 24 Louisville first in Lopes head coach Shanon Hays' reoccurring regional "nightmare."
The double-elimination regional's opener at 1 p.m. (Phoenix time) pits Mountain West champion GCU, making its fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament trip as the regional's No. 3 seed, against ACC third-place team Louisville, making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2023 as the regional's No. 2 seed.
The Cardinals started the season as the snubbed team, with ACC coaches predicting them to finish 10th and putting no Cardinals on the Preseason All-ACC team. Louisville went 44-12 overall and 18-6 in the eight-bid conference, landing a trio of .400-plus hitters on the All-ACC first team – outfielders Chelsea Mack (.445) and Madison Pickens (.470) and catcher Bri Dispenses (.410).
GCU tied for the nation's most wins at 52-8, a program record for wins in a season, despite injuries taking away MW Player of the Year Savannah Kirk, last season's No. 2 hitter in the nation, in the preseason and the Lopes' other starting middle infielder, second baseman Mackenzie Nolan, in the postseason.
"It's such a tough team mentally," said Hays, whose program has the nation's fourth-best winning percentage (.802) since his first GCU season in 2022. "They do it for each other. They play together as a team."
The Lopes led with pitching, using its staff's depth to rank in the national top 10 for ERA for a second consecutive regular season. When that faltered some in the Mountain West Championship, the hitters stepped up with .349 tournament batting and a MW Championship-record 10 home runs in five tournament games.
Led by the power bats of sophomore Jada Cooper (15 home runs), senior Emily Gonzalez (12 home runs, 14 doubles) and graduate Trinity Martin (17 home runs after hitting nine in three Virginia Tech seasons), GCU obliterated the program single-season home run record of 75 with 87 and counting. Freshman Addison Shiflett broke out with a MW Championship record of four tournament home runs, giving her 11 on the season.
Facing elite competition, Louisville ranked 87th nationally in ERA at 3.78 with four-year, right-handed ace Alyssa Zabala going 11-4 this season with a 3.63 ERA in 127 1/3 innings and 40 appearances, including 24 starts.
The Cardinals offense hits at the nation's 11th-best clip – .351. In April and May, Louisville scored fewer than five runs in a game once.
"Execute our offense, pass the bat," Louisville eighth-year head coach Holly Aprile said at the Cardinals' NCAA Selection Show press conference. "That's one of the big things we've done. We've been able to put a lot of pressure on teams."
The Lopes have won nine of their past 10 games and are riding the momentum of ending the MW Championship on the largest comeback in program history. Rallying twice to win from seventh-inning, four-run deficits in the tournament, GCU escaped a 9-0, first-inning hole to beat host Nevada 11-10 in the nine-inning title game. The season-long mantra of "All 21," for how many outs it takes to beat the Lopes, showed up on practice shirts this week.
"Never-say-die, for sure," Hays said. "I've kind of set the bar low for this the whole year, and they easily keep jumping over it. To win 52 games and be 52-8, if you would've told me that was a possibility before the year, I would've thought you were crazy. So they just keep going and going, and they enjoy being around each other and they enjoy playing the game."
Lopes sophomore Oakley Vickers was the tournament's Most Valuable Player with a 1.09 ERA and a tournament-record 23 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings. She pitched her first career complete game, a 5-hit shutout against Nevada, to set up the winner-take-all classic. GCU senior Taryn Batterton and freshman Lilly Camp stepped up in relief to allow the Lopes' epic rally, and the Lopes also have relied on right-handers Natalie Fritz, a sophomore, and Abi Jones, a freshman, all season.
"This is a team that knows how to win," NCAA softball analyst Michelle Chester said in naming GCU one of three NCAA Tournament dark horses.
The Lopes feel like they should not be considered an underdog for a No. 3 seed after sharing the nation's win lead with Texas Tech and cracking the national top 25. That will fuel their engines for the three-day, four-team regional with 46-6 Nebraska and Summit League champion South Dakota, who lost 1-0 at GCU on Feb. 14 despite pitcher Madison Evans 1-hitting the Lopes.
"We're very confident right now," GCU senior center fielder Sydney McCray said. "I feel like we're peaking. We're just going in there with the same mentality that we've had, where every team has to get us out all 21 outs. We're not going to give up until they do. We're going to refuse to lose until that happens."
For the second consecutive year, Grand Canyon was planted in the only regional with three top-25 teams … despite being one of those ranked teams again. Punching GCU's first Super Regional ticket would require ousting the nation's No. 1 team, Nebraska, at its scarlet-clad home, Bowlin Stadium, but the Lopes have to deal with the other ranked ladies in red from No. 24 Louisville first in Lopes head coach Shanon Hays' reoccurring regional "nightmare."
The double-elimination regional's opener at 1 p.m. (Phoenix time) pits Mountain West champion GCU, making its fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament trip as the regional's No. 3 seed, against ACC third-place team Louisville, making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2023 as the regional's No. 2 seed.
The Cardinals started the season as the snubbed team, with ACC coaches predicting them to finish 10th and putting no Cardinals on the Preseason All-ACC team. Louisville went 44-12 overall and 18-6 in the eight-bid conference, landing a trio of .400-plus hitters on the All-ACC first team – outfielders Chelsea Mack (.445) and Madison Pickens (.470) and catcher Bri Dispenses (.410).
GCU tied for the nation's most wins at 52-8, a program record for wins in a season, despite injuries taking away MW Player of the Year Savannah Kirk, last season's No. 2 hitter in the nation, in the preseason and the Lopes' other starting middle infielder, second baseman Mackenzie Nolan, in the postseason.
"It's such a tough team mentally," said Hays, whose program has the nation's fourth-best winning percentage (.802) since his first GCU season in 2022. "They do it for each other. They play together as a team."
The Lopes led with pitching, using its staff's depth to rank in the national top 10 for ERA for a second consecutive regular season. When that faltered some in the Mountain West Championship, the hitters stepped up with .349 tournament batting and a MW Championship-record 10 home runs in five tournament games.
Led by the power bats of sophomore Jada Cooper (15 home runs), senior Emily Gonzalez (12 home runs, 14 doubles) and graduate Trinity Martin (17 home runs after hitting nine in three Virginia Tech seasons), GCU obliterated the program single-season home run record of 75 with 87 and counting. Freshman Addison Shiflett broke out with a MW Championship record of four tournament home runs, giving her 11 on the season.
Facing elite competition, Louisville ranked 87th nationally in ERA at 3.78 with four-year, right-handed ace Alyssa Zabala going 11-4 this season with a 3.63 ERA in 127 1/3 innings and 40 appearances, including 24 starts.
The Cardinals offense hits at the nation's 11th-best clip – .351. In April and May, Louisville scored fewer than five runs in a game once.
"Execute our offense, pass the bat," Louisville eighth-year head coach Holly Aprile said at the Cardinals' NCAA Selection Show press conference. "That's one of the big things we've done. We've been able to put a lot of pressure on teams."
The Lopes have won nine of their past 10 games and are riding the momentum of ending the MW Championship on the largest comeback in program history. Rallying twice to win from seventh-inning, four-run deficits in the tournament, GCU escaped a 9-0, first-inning hole to beat host Nevada 11-10 in the nine-inning title game. The season-long mantra of "All 21," for how many outs it takes to beat the Lopes, showed up on practice shirts this week.
"Never-say-die, for sure," Hays said. "I've kind of set the bar low for this the whole year, and they easily keep jumping over it. To win 52 games and be 52-8, if you would've told me that was a possibility before the year, I would've thought you were crazy. So they just keep going and going, and they enjoy being around each other and they enjoy playing the game."
Lopes sophomore Oakley Vickers was the tournament's Most Valuable Player with a 1.09 ERA and a tournament-record 23 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings. She pitched her first career complete game, a 5-hit shutout against Nevada, to set up the winner-take-all classic. GCU senior Taryn Batterton and freshman Lilly Camp stepped up in relief to allow the Lopes' epic rally, and the Lopes also have relied on right-handers Natalie Fritz, a sophomore, and Abi Jones, a freshman, all season.
"This is a team that knows how to win," NCAA softball analyst Michelle Chester said in naming GCU one of three NCAA Tournament dark horses.
The Lopes feel like they should not be considered an underdog for a No. 3 seed after sharing the nation's win lead with Texas Tech and cracking the national top 25. That will fuel their engines for the three-day, four-team regional with 46-6 Nebraska and Summit League champion South Dakota, who lost 1-0 at GCU on Feb. 14 despite pitcher Madison Evans 1-hitting the Lopes.
"We're very confident right now," GCU senior center fielder Sydney McCray said. "I feel like we're peaking. We're just going in there with the same mentality that we've had, where every team has to get us out all 21 outs. We're not going to give up until they do. We're going to refuse to lose until that happens."
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/ SoftballNCAA Regional #softball practice through the eyes of Sydney McCray
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