Just. That. Close.
 
Taking its first appearance ever on a national stage to the elimination bracket, the Grand Canyon University Men's Club Soccer team took Georgia Tech University to the hilt, staying even with Yellow Jackets for 100 minutes of play before losing to the Yellow Jackets in penalty kicks, 3-2, in the Round of 16 of the 2024 National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association National Tournament in Round Rock, Texas. The Lopes finished tournament play with a 1-1-1 record and finished the fall season with an overall mark of 11-4-1 and a Region V Championship.
 
If the Lopes were jittery before playing their first-ever national tournament match Thursday afternoon, no one knew it, and it certainly didn't hurt that they had extra motivation, since their first opponent was a familiar one. The Lopes have faced the University of California-San Diego four of the last five years during their trip to the Aztec Cup every October, and were still stinging from a 2-1 loss to the Tritons on October 11. Friday's pool-play match was just as tight, with Ansu Kanneh providing GCU's offense in the first half to tie UCSD at 1-1 at halftime. The stalemate remained until the match's 70^th minute when Luke Peterson found an opening near the goal and pounced to give the Lopes a 2-1 victory.
 
The win sent the Lopes to a final pool-play showdown against the powerful offense of the Region II Champs from University of Central Florida Thursday night, and the Knights didn't disappoint. The first 40 minutes didn't feature a ton of defense, with the Floridians jumping out to a quick 2-0 edge before Joseph Butzke got the Lopes on the scoreboard midway through the half. UCF neutralized that goal before the half ended, taking a 3-1 cushion into the final 40 minutes. Surprisingly, the two defenses took over from there, and the 3-1 loss meant the Lopes had to sit and wait to see if they'd get a chance to reach the higher echelons of elimination play.
 

The answer sent the Lopes to the Round of 16 and a clash with highly touted Georgia Tech, who lost the Knights in the Region II Championship, but had yet to allow a goal in its first two matches at nationals. GCU's Roberto Perez promptly took care of that, scoring the Lopes' goal midway through the first half to give GCU a 1-0 lead at the break. The lead disappeared right after the teams kicked off Half #2 as the Yellow Jackets converted a penalty kick within the first seconds to tie the match. Once again, the 2^nd-half defenses took over and forced the teams to overtime still knotted at 1-1. After no change from 20 extra minutes of play, the teams resorted to penalty kicks, where the Yellow Jackets' 3^rd score sent them to the quarterfinals (their run ended in the semifinals at the hands of eventual champion Brigham Young University) and sent the Lopes home knowing they'd let one get away.
 
"We dominated that game, and had so many chance the entire match, but we just couldn't score," said Lopes' Head Coach Damian Tule'.
 
Despite the loss, the Lopes can smile knowing their 11 wins during the fall shattered the Lopes' previous high-water mark for wins in a season, which was eight set by the 2017-18 GCU squad.