She in no way expected a cakewalk.
 
But Lopes' Women's Rugby Head Coach Lindsey Mahoney didn't expect this, either.
 
Going toe-to-toe with 'the most physical team we've seen all year', Mahoney watched GCU's Samantha Garcia pinball her way to the game-winning try in the final minutes to lead Grand Canyon University Women's Rugby to a thrilling 21-17 victory over the University of California-Berkeley in the College Rugby Association of America Women's D1 Round of 8 Playoffs at GCU Soccer Stadium on the GCU campus Friday. The win helped the Lopes advance to Sunday's Women's Final Four round against the University of Virginia, who topped Arizona State University by 20 points in their quarterfinal matchup Friday afternoon. It's the second time in the last three years that the Lopes have advanced to Sunday's championship in this tournament, having lost to BYU in the same matchup two years ago. A win Sunday sends the Lopes to the 2024 CRAA Women's National Tournament in Houston, Texas, for the first time in program history.

After being trounced by the Lopes, 46-12, last year's 3^rd-place match, the Bears showed how much they remembered that match from the opening kick Friday afternoon, since they kept the high-powered Lopes' offense in the middle of the field for the match's first 20 minutes. Finally, GCU's Amaya De La Cruz broke the scoreless stalemate in the 22^nd minute with a breakaway to give the Lopes a 7-0 edge. With temperatures hitting 90° by game time, the defenses wore down before halftime. Cal's Lorie Martinez found an opening up the middle and scampered for the tying score in the 31^st minute, then De La Cruz returned the momentum to the Lopes with her second try as GCU went into the break with a 14-7 cushion.
 
The start of the second half was almost a carbon copy of the first, with neither team finding the try zone in the first 21 minutes, but the Lopes appeared to be the fresher team. That changed with 19:16 left as the Bears' Timea Ryan found an opening, dashed toward the zone, then right when she was hit, flipped a perfect pass to Brooke Soldano who finished the scoring run to tie the match again. The score reenergized the Bears, who took possession again, marched down the field, and after a GCU yellow card, used an Esther Morrison penalty kick to take a 17-14 lead in the 67^th minute. Tiring, the Lopes mounted one final drive, finding openings on the left side of Cal's defense to get just a few yards from the try zone before getting pushed back numerous times. Going from sideline to sideline, Garcia finally took an interior pass, went into the heart of the Bears' defense and bounced off three defenders, falling forward for the go-ahead score. After Garcia's third two-point conversion of the day, the Lopes took the ball, held onto it for five of the match's last seven minutes, and didn't let the Bears get inside the 22-meter line for a chance to win before time expired.
 
"This is really the first time this season we've had to string a lot of phases together to score, but I was really proud of our patience on that last scoring drive," said Mahoney. "We're known for making a few more mistakes because we're willing to take chances, but after that, we had to change our game plan in that final seven minutes and play a tighter game to win."
 
The Lopes (8-0 overall) will host the Cavaliers at GCU Soccer Stadium at 11AM Sunday morning – following the 9AM final four matchup between the winners of Friday's other two games, Western Washington University and Stanford University. Sunday's winners both received national tournament bids for Houston. The national tournament begins May 4.