After coming close to reaching the quarterfinals of the 6
th-place bracket on Day 2, the
Grand Canyon University Women's Ultimate team reached the final of the 10
th-place category at of the 2025 USA Ultimate Southwest Division 1 Regional Tournament, finishing in 11
th overall after a 13-10 loss to 11
th-seeded Santa Clara University on the final day in Bakersfield, California. The 11
th-place finish ensured the Lopes were the highest-finishing Arizona team in the 16-team tournament, which sent the top six finishers (all from California) to the USA Ultimate D-1 College Championships in Washington.
Firmly planted in one of the toughest of the four pools going into the tournament, the 12
th-seeded Lopes received a rude welcome from 5
th-seeded University of California-San Diego in a 15-1 loss, yet showed little ill effects of it in gaining a split of pool play just two hours later in a 13-9 win over UCSD's 'B' squad. That sent the Lopes to the 6
th-place qualifier round, where they dispatched 13
th-seeded San Diego State University, 13-8. That put them on a collision course with ultimately the hottest team in the bracket, 8
th-seeded University of Southern California, who used a 15-10 win over the Lopes to reach the 6
th-place quarterfinals (ultimately reaching the 6
th-place finals).
That dropped the Lopes into Sunday's four-team 10
th-place bracket and a morning matchup against Arizona State University. The Lopes and Sun Devils played like the natural rivals they were as the Lopes' closest match of the weekend turned into a rather defensive-minded 11-9 GCU victory. That left the final matchup against SCU, who outlasted the Lopes in the 10
th-place finals.
The Lopes finished the three-day tourney with a .500 mark of 3-3. It also capped off their 2024-25 season with an impressive overall mark of 13-5 that included winning both the Canyon Classic and the Desert D-1 Conference Championships.