The .500 mark isn't too shabby.

Entering the American Collegiate Hockey League Women's Division 1 National Championships as the 12^th and final seed, the Grand Canyon University Women's Hockey team sent a message that they officially belonged on the national stage, leading from start to finish en route to a 3-2 victory in its final pool play game against 8^th-seeded Niagara University (New York) Wednesday night in St. Louis, Missouri. The win earned a split of the two pool-play games for the Lopes, who lost their opening game against top-seeded Liberty University, 7-0, Monday. The Lopes head home from "The Show-Me State" basking in the glow of not only their first national tournament appearance but their first-ever Western Women's Collegiate Hockey League Championship.

While the Lopes' performance wasn't enough to advance them to the ACHA Final Four, they used the 'education' they received in Game 1 from one of the teams that did move on and displayed the lessons well two nights later. The Lopes' opening draw, Liberty, entered play seeking its 6^th national title in seven years and played like it, firing no less than 23 shots on goal in any of the three periods, and going 2-for-5 on power play opportunities on the way to a 7-0 win over GCU. If the Lopes were hanging their heads at all about the loss, though, they discovered a night later that the 23-win Flames were simply that good, firing another 75 shots at Niagara in a dominant 6-1 victory Tuesday.

"We noticed in the Liberty game that no one had their heads down, and played until the final horn," said Lopes' Head Coach Reid Miller. "That's what we wanted to bring into our final game against Niagara, and we executed that very well. They're fast and smart and play together really well. We knew Niagara's weak points and we wanted to get the puck behind their defensemen, support the puck down low and find the open option, which we did."

When the Lopes and Purple Hens took the ice last night to finish off the pool play round, it was Niagara that seemed to have a larger 'Liberty hangover' than the Lopes. With Niagara working to hold the nation's top goal scorer, GCU senior Reese Gingrich, in check, that gave the Lopes' other forwards a chance, and they capitalized. Rory Arteaga was the first to break through, using Jenna Sorenson's 8^th assist pass of the season to find the back of the Purple Hens' net eight minutes into the game, giving the Lopes their first tournament lead, 1-0. Lopes' goalie Hannah Schneidmiller made sure it was a lead the Lopes wouldn't relinquish, stopping all 30 NU shots in the first two periods, which allowed 2^nd-period goals by Arteaga and fellow junior Taylor Klassen to extend the Lopes' edge to 3-0 after 40 minutes of play.

Schneidmiller was still pitching a shutout midway through the final period when a GCU penalty gave Niagara a slight window of hope, and the Purple Hens scored both a power-play and then even-strength goal within four minutes of each other to close the deficit to one with just over five minutes left. Avoiding any further trips to the penalty box, the Lopes' defense neutralized the Purple Hens, with Schneidmiller racking up 42 saves in her final game wearing purple to ice the victory. The Arteaga/Klassen/Sorenson combo registered two points apiece, with both Klassen and Sorenson assisting on what would Arteaga's gamewinner with just over a minute left in the second period.

"The first (opposing goal) is always tough when it goes off a shin pad and scores, and you can't do anything about that," said Lopes' Head Coach Reid Miller. "We just needed to get our players to take a breath, calm down, get back to possessing the puck and creating battles in the defensive zone. We started to get a little squirrely by throwing the puck when we didn't need to, but we settled down and found a way to win."

The Lopes close out the 2024-25 campaign with a 15-18 overall mark and a 10-6 record in WWCHL play.

"For the entire program, we now have a few more eyes on us as a hockey school, which will help our recruiting," said Miller. "We've showed we're a winning team and a team that can perform on the big stage."