Steady rise puts GCU on course for more this year

Grand Canyon starts the season in the same geographic place, the Puget Sound Region, as last year.

But the Lopes are in a different place for team headspace, with six returnees fueled by the confidence-building motivation of being in a Mountain West title chase last season and two freshmen whose talent give GCU more depth.
GCU women's golf team

The Lopes remain young with only one player, senior Jess Haines, bringing more than one season of full-time college playing experience into this week's Leadership and Golf Invitational. But with Alexis Vakasiuola back after being All-Mountain West first team as a freshman, GCU does not play or carry itself like a team of youngsters any longer.

The Lopes were filled with confidence for having a final-round Mountain West Championship lead last season and motivation to finish that job this season.

"We're starting off at a higher level this year," GCU third-year head coach Brent Nicoson said. "Alexis was so incredible last year. We can't expect her to do that every round. We've got to have everybody else step up. I really like the trajectory we're heading on. The feeling in the program is really, really good right now. Now we just have to go play golf."

Vakasiuola had immediate competition this season, when freshman Allira Shingles arrived from Hervey Bay, Australia, and won the team's six-round qualifying tournament.

"Allira's a model student-athlete," Nicoson said. "She looks like a senior. She just methodically got to work, put her head down and did everything asked. She's been unbelievably good. She's been a leader. I told her I don't look at her as a freshman. She's leading by example."

What stands out about Shingles' game is that nothing stands out. Her play is solid and steady across all facets with no weakness.

After winning the Northern Territory Amateur Championships women's title before leaving Australia in May, that consistency play carried her past all the transition phases upon arriving in Phoenix last month – college life, American culture, desert golf and more.

"I feel like I really fit in, which has helped," said Shingles, who compared campus life to a vacation. "I was just so excited to get started that it was the only thing on my mind. There's so much support here. Even if you have a bad day, you have your team to support you. Golf can be a lonely game, and it's not like that with a lot of support.

"I went out with no expectations. I just wanted to play for myself and play well, and I did that. I'm very proud of myself. It's given me quite a bit of confidence, actually. I know I can do it now."

Vakasiuola might have won qualifying if not for a final-round illness. The San Tan Valley, Arizona, native has a healthy list of credentials entering her sophomore season after rising 374 spots in the national rankings during last season.

She set a GCU record with her 71.9 scoring average, buoyed by recording six consecutive top-10 finishes before placing 11th at the NCAA Ann Arbor Regional. Like team, she was in contention for a MW title before placing third.

Vakasiuola followed her great freshman season by winning the Arizona Amateur Women's Championship to advance to the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.

"The NCAA Tournament did a lot for her," Nicoson said. "I don't think she understood how good she could be or how good she was, and now she does because we saw it.

"She's definitely taken a step up in maturity, communication and expectations. Now she expects to be good. She's asking for more help to take that next step. She hits it a long way, and her putting was always good. Now, she's working on her woods and irons to have less curvature on them. It's for her long-term goals. To become a professional later, the changes have to start happening now."

Team success will rely on establishing consistency and depth, Nicoson said. The opening lineup includes Shingles, Vakasiuola, Haines, junior Allie Justiz and sophomore Clara Durr, but GCU needs the eight-person roster with high-potential freshman Gianna Singh and returning sophomores Honor Johnson and Rosie Maguire to make the team's pieces interchangeable.

"Now we have six players who have been through it, and they can lead those two freshmen," Nicoson said. "The biggest difference starting off this year is the belief in themselves. What the conference championship did for us last year, Coach C (assistant coach Chelsea Carroll) and I were always telling them to just stick with the process. We saw growth in them all spring."

Justiz, who transferred from Texas State last season, placed third in qualifying to show how she is playing more comfortably and driven this season. From the time she arrived first, Justiz has made her higher expectations for herself and the team clear to Nicoson.

"Coach, this year is different," she said upon seeing Nicoson for the first time this summer at GCU Golf Course. "We're going to win tournaments. I'm coming in competitive."

Her play also showed it. When she was ill during qualifying and on the fringe of the season-opening lineup after five rounds, she finished with a 4-under-par 68 to demonstrate her mindset shift.

Durr, a German who played 15 tournament rounds last season, won a tiebreaker against Haines for fourth in qualifying. She showed that level in October when she opened the Rainbow Wahine Invitational with a 3-under round of 69 and is regaining that form after health issues for the remainder of the season. She shot a team-qualifying round of 68 at Troon North Golf Club.

"Clara said it's like family like here, and that makes her more comfortable," Nicoson said.

Haines, known as "Grandma," is playing her fourth season from Nicoson after following him from Indianapolis to Phoenix when he became GCU's head coach in 2024. The Englishwoman improved her scoring average by 3.6 strokes for a 74.3 average last season.

"She knows the expectations, so she can lead when I'm not around," Nicoson said. "She knows how to hold people accountable. She knows how to make people better. She's very valuable for me as a leader."

After a player was late for practice, Haines arranged for the team to atone as a whole by arriving at GCU Golf Course at 6 a.m. to replace divots.

That example impacts the freshman duo of Shingles and Singh, who already have learned about the team's practice of writing thank-you notes to host coaches and club professionals for the courses they visit.

Singh, who is from Elk Grove, California, is coming off a spectacular summer with winning the San Francisco City Championship women's title and reaching the round of 32 at the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.

"She's an ultra-talented kid," Nicoson said. "She hits the ball a mile, farther than anybody we've ever had. She brings a lot of natural talent, and her length will help her. She just has to get used to the college atmosphere quickly. She can go low, and that is something we haven't had for someone to go low with Alexis last year."

Johnson, another native of England, improved at the same rapid rate as Vakasiuola during last season. She benefited from playing 29 tournament rounds as a freshman, including an even-par second round that helped thrust GCU into the lead entering the Mountain West Championship's final round.

Maguire, who is from Scotland, finished last season strongly and ended qualifying with a round of 70. She was the team alternate for that conference tournament, which the Lopes finished six strokes behind champion UNLV. It was a hard lesson about playing "calm and tough," the GCU way.

"That conference championship really built us up as far as what we can be and seeing that the process works," Nicoson said. "Last year, we were starting off at a level where we just hoped things happen and didn't know where we were. This year, the expectations are higher because of that tournament."

Grand Canyon University Athletics

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Jess Haines

Honor Johnson

Allie Justiz

Rosie Maguire

Allira Shingles

Gianna Singh

Alexis Vakasiuola

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