Just a few minutes away from perfection, but they'll take it.
 
Shaking off a month's rust in impressive fashion, the Grand Canyon University Women's Club Soccer Team marched through the field at the Director's Cup Tournament in Tucson this weekend, culminating its title run with a 3-1 victory over Cal-State San Marcos Sunday afternoon. The Cougars' score in the title match was the lone goal allowed by the Lopes in their four matches at the first Director's Cup they've ever attended. The wins also doubled the Lopes' win total for the season, raising their overall record to 8-2-1. Their eight wins are the 3^rd-most in a fall season in GCU Women's Club Soccer history.
 
From the time Caitlyn Winter's goal got the scoring going in the Lopes' first tournament match against Millersville University (Pennsylvania) Saturday, to Kalea Agpalo's insurance goal in the second half Sunday to put it out of reach against CSUSM, the Lopes were in complete control of every match they played.
 
"The girls have continued to train hard – even on weeks we haven't had matches," said Lopes' Head Coach Vanessa Leyva. "Over the last month, we really focused on why we're all out there: to compete, enjoy the game and have fun. Having that "refreshment" brought high spirits for the girls leading up to the tournament. When we play our game and get results, the fun naturally follows."
 
There was nothing but 'fun' in the balanced attack of the 5-0 win over MU Saturday, with Winter, Agpalo, Addy McMahon, Lilia Echols and Brittany Hahn all scoring a goal each. Three hours later, the first meeting of the weekend between GCU and CSUSM came in the quarterfinals, but it had a similar pace to the Sunday matchup as the Lopes pitched their 2^nd straight shutout, with Agpalo, McMahon and Kylee Evans providing the offense in the 3-0 win.
 
Sunday's semifinal match saw the Lopes' most dominant performance of the tourney, a 5-0 shellacking of Western Michigan University. The Lopes scored four times in the first 22 minutes of the game – the last two off the foot of Agpalo – and were never threatened again. In the final, the Cougars gave themselves renewed hope by delivering GCU its only deficit of the tournament by scoring first in the 20^th minute. The momentum swing lasted all of five minutes as GCU freshman Mallory Villars first tied it before halftime, then scored the game-winning goal early in the second half.
 
Agpalo led the attack with five of the team's 16 tournament goals, McMahon had three, while Winter and Villars scored a pair each. On the defensive side, the stingy play between the pipes came from Lopes' sophomore Kylie Martin, who was in goal for all but one half, and whose rapport with her backline was praised by Leyva.
 
"The defense kept it sharp by being led very communicatively by Kylie," said Leyva. "I have to give credit to the offense, though, for taking chances they normally have been hesitant to take in the final third."
 
Their fall season complete, the Lopes will resume training in January.