A nationals odyssey-14 minutes at a time.
 
After winning of two of three matches in pool play, the Grand Canyon University Men's Rugby team fell just one win short of reaching the top four places of the USA Rugby Premier 7's National Championships Sunday in Houston, Texas. The Lopes fell, 7-0, to archrival University of Arizona in Sunday morning's bowl semifinal, then had to settle for a tie for 7^th place after the Lopes and Central Washington University were forced to cancel their 7^th-place match. The Lopes finished the tournament with a 2-2 record after closing out their 2022-23 15's season with a mark of 5-3.

Pool Play: Life 26, GCU 14
 
After completing their regular season schedule in 15's with a dominant win at San Diego State University in late March, the Lopes spent the month of April adapting to the faster pace of 7's play, which features a 14-minute match instead of the 40-minute duration that 15's matches offer. Once in the Lone Star State, it took a full match to get completely acclimated, letting vaunted Life University (who eventually won the tournament) jump out to a 19-0 edge in the first seven minutes of GCU's first pool-play match before Lachlan Jackson got the Lopes on the board with a try in the 11^th minute. Jackson brought the Lopes within five a couple of minutes later with his second try, but the Running Eagles held the ball last, and worked their way down the field before Jeron Pantor ran it in in extra time to seal the Life win.
 
Pool Play: GCU 14, UCLA 7
 
Two hours later, the Lopes fell behind early again this time to UCLA, 7-0, late in the first half. This time, they didn't wait until late to get their offense moving, tying the score in the second minute of the second half thanks to Jared Tavares' try and the ensuing two-point conversion from Juan Felan. The back-and-forth battle stayed tied until the 13^th minute when Felan himself found an opening to push through, give the Lopes their first lead of the tournament, and ultimately, their first win.
 
Pool Play: GCU 40, CRAA Selects 14
 
That put the pressure on the Lopes to finish pool play strong, and GCU wasted little time in showing just how strong they were in their final pool-play matchup against the CRAA Selects. Felan and teammate Dakota Toler found paydirt within the match's first two minutes, and the Lopes never slowed from there, getting two tries from Caleb Peavy within seconds of each other in the 6^th minute, then a third Peavy try right after Felan found the try zone just before halftime to give the Lopes a 33-0 bulge. David Whisenant capped off the scoring in the Lopes' rout with a try in the final minute.
 
Bowl Semifinal: Arizona 7, GCU 0
 
Rain that moved through overnight in Houston suddenly changed the pace of play for Sunday's bowl semifinals, and it immediately showed. The teams couldn't find an edge against the other, resulting in a scoreless deadlock until the 11^th minute when Arizona's Ernest Freeman snuck through the Lopes' defense to put down the only score of the match, and send the Wildcats to the 3^rd-place match.
 
Even though the Lopes couldn't take the field for the final matchup Sunday, their head man couldn't have asked for much more than what he saw.
 
"I was delighted with our performances over the past two days, since to tie for 7^th with the quality teams that were in Houston is admirable," said Lopes' Head Coach Sean O'Leary. "To look back at this season – really only my first full season since I got here (thanks to COVID cancellations and postponements) – and think we have played Cal, St. Mary's, BYU, Utah, Life, Lindenwood and Arizona? That's a heck of a season. We will continue to improve and set our sights high."