Their sport's "Team of the Year"? Close.  "Rookies of the Year"? No question.

Remaining among the top teams in the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association rankings throughout the year, the inaugural season for the Grand Canyon University Roller team has earned them a bid to the NCRHA National Championships. This comes after the Lopes took the No. 2 team in the nation, Arizona State University, to the brink, finally losing to the Sun Devils, 2-1, in Game 3 of the best-of-3 NCRHA Western Conference Championships in Corona, California. The 5^th-ranked Lopes now take an overall record of 14-5-2 (12-4 in NCRHA Western Conference play) to nationals beginning April 19 in Irvine, California, hoping to exceed their goals one more time.

"We met them-all of them," said Lopes' junior forward Aydin Schwetz, who was one of the co-founders of the team last summer. "Just like any other startup, they tell you you're crazy and that it's much harder than you think. We blew everyone's else's expectations out of the water."

Schwetz had plenty to celebrate after his first year donning Lopes' purple. A transfer from last year's national championship team at Lindenwood University, Schwetz finished the regular season as the leader in the nation in goals (37) and points (53) while finishing 6^th in the NCRHA with 16 assists, earning NCRHA Division I Regular Season Most Valuable Player honors as a result. It's the second year that Schwetz has been a postseason honoree, earning 1^st Team Division IV honors playing for the Lions in Missouri a year ago.

"Going from a third-liner on a Division IV team last year to transferring to a new school and starting everything from scratch, winning MVP wasn't even remotely in my sights," said Schwetz. "After the semester break, though, I realized it might be possible and something I could be conscious about going forward. I never lost focus of our team's success in the fall, but in the second semester, I thought we could really emphasize some of our players' accomplishments in the spring."

He had plenty of reasons to do that, since both Lopes' freshman Brydon Frisk (21) and senior Logan Estes (20) finished among the top 5 goal scorers in the NCHRA, and Frisk was 2^nd in assists overall with 19.

"Logan is a great example of our success, since he was our last signee from tryouts, and we thought he'd just 'grind it out'," said Schwetz. "He's still a grinder, but what he did on the court just amazed all of us, and his success has inspired a lot more players from his area (he grew up in Yuma) to come to GCU next year."

The Lopes earned national respect early and often, never ranking lower than 6^th in the national poll after earning a No. 3 spot in the preseason rankings. They also finished 5^th in the NCRHA Power Rankings among 65 teams. After posting a win (ASU) and 2 overtime losses (Lindenwood and Bethel University from Tennessee) against the top three teams in the final NCRHA Poll of the year, the never-lacking-for-confidence Schwetz just wants to keep the momentum going in SoCal.

"We will do better than others think, and hopefully shock everyone and ourselves," said Schwetz. "We put in as much time, effort and dedication as any team, and we will go into nationals without any regrets for how we prepared."

The Lopes will tune up for the trip in a fun way tonight at the DEK Roller Hockey Rink on the east side of the GCU campus, battling the GCU D1 Men's Hockey team in an exhibition challenge match. Puck drop is scheduled for 7PM, and admission is FREE.