Déjà vu, but in a much cooler climate.
 
For the second consecutive year, the Grand Canyon University Women's Lacrosse team usurped its low seed at the Western Women's Lacrosse League Playoffs and finished 6^th in the eight-team tournament in San Diego, California. The 7^th-seeded Lopes dropped their second game in as many weeks to #2 Arizona State University, 14-7, to open tournament play Saturday morning before bouncing back to outlast the 6^th-seeded hosts of the tournament, UC San Diego, 16-13, Saturday afternoon. The Lopes finished off their season with a 16-10 loss in the 5^th-place game of the tournament to No. 5 seed California Polytechnic State University. It's the identical finishing position as a year ago for the Lopes, who hosted the 2022 WWLL Playoffs in much warmer weather on the GCU campus last April.
 
The Lopes (6-9 overall, 1-3 WWLL) carried a little momentum into the tournament based on an impressive performance in a 17-14 loss in the regular season finale to ASU – the 6^th-ranked team in the country at that time. This time around, the Lopes took a 3-2 lead, then struggled the next two quarters to get anything going offensively and trailed most of the way against the Sun Devils, dropping them into the consolation bracket against the host Tritons, who came off a disappointing 16-7 first-round loss to eventual tournament champion San Diego State University. The Lopes took advantage of the Tritons' defense in the same manner as SDSU, taking a 9-6 lead at the half en route to their second-best offensive performance of the season. The win pitted GCU against 5^th-seeded Cal Poly, who had struggled offensively throughout much of the first day's action before pulling out a one-goal victory in their 2^nd-round game against 8^th-seeded UC Santa Barbara. Sunday morning, the Mustangs came out firing, overtaking the Lopes' defense in the second quarter to take the lead for good.
 
"The one disappointment of the weekend was the loss to Cal Poly," said Lopes' Head Coach Tracy Ramirez. "They were our first win of the season (a 14-11 victory on January 27), and the tiebreaker win that got us into the playoffs. It would have been a 'full circle' moment for our season if we had beaten them again, but hopefully, all this motivates and drives the incoming team to work hard during the off-season and be ready to pick up where we left off come the fall."
 
The Lopes' offense was balanced throughout the three games, with Rachel Ware's seven goals leading nine different GCU scorers. Mercedes Hough and Shaylee Smith tied for the team lead in assists in San Diego, each contributing four on the weekend. Lopes' senior goalie Maggie Bjerkaas recorded 42 saves out of 85 total shots on goal in her last three games in the net for GCU.
 
During the tournament, the WWLL postseason squads were announced, and Lopes' freshman midfielder Ava Loeffler earned 1^st Team All-WWLL honors, while both Bjerkaas and Paige DeVries landed 2^nd Team All-WWLL spots.
 
"More than anything, I am proud of the culture that came through this year," said Ramirez. "Everyone was so like-minded to work hard, focus on getting better, but also enjoy the time together. It was another great layer in our foundation for the sustainable growth and success of the program."