She's helped oversee three years of growth and organization.
 
Wednesday night, Lopes' Head Coach Jackie Paul saw it all come to fruition in just 40 minutes.
 
Preparing to host the Arizona A Cappella Festival for only the second time in the team's history next weekend, the Grand Canyon University Club A Cappella squad tuned up for it with a 40-minute songfest at the GCU Fall Showcase Wednesday night at GCU's Sunset Auditorium. The nine-song set was equally divided between four subgroups within the program, highlighting both the team's competition and intermediate groups – something the team hadn't had until last season.
 
After welcoming a group of about 75 patrons to the hall, the 16-member competition group – the Canyon Crescendos - gave a rousing version (under Paul's arrangement) of Jacob Collier & Brandi Carlile's "Little Blue". They next featured Lopes' junior Lee Kingwood's expert beatbox sound on Valerie Broussard's "Trouble", then showcased the team's versatility by giving all 16 singers different accompaniments in a mashup on One Republic's "Counting Stars" and Pitbull's "Timber." They followed that up with the men heading to the sideline while the women's side of the top group belted out Destiny's Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills".
 
The competition group then gave way to the eight-person intermediate group, the Acalopes, who rivaled the prior group's versatility in their performance of "The Night We Met" (Lord Huron) before delving into the longtime crooner standard "Fly Me to the Moon" from Frank Sinatra.
 
The Crescendos' men then got their opportunity to shine with a mashup of "Bright Lights Bigger City" (Cee-Lo Green) and B.o.B.'s "Magic", with Zach Colin and Dillon Grenert handling solos for the first song, and Nathan Fritz stepping to the front to provide the rap for the latter tune. The women and men reconvened together on stage for the evening's final two numbers. Elyse Reed's arrangement of Auli'i Cravalho's "How Far I'll Go" featured Lopes' sophomore alto Emily Foran in the main role, while Paul and Reed's collaborative arrangement on John Legend's "Start A Fire" sent Grenert back to the front of the stage to lead the group.
 
The group will now host 10 other a cappella teams from around the state Saturday, November 16 at the Arizona A Cappella Festival, which will provide a full days of workshops and rehearsals around the GCU campus before culminating in a group performance at Sunset Auditorium that night at 7:30PM (which is open to the public).