GCU again faces UCLA in NCAA Tournament
For a third consecutive year, Grand Canyon’s softball team will play UCLA in Los Angeles to open the NCAA Tournament.
The Lopes found out their fate Sunday during the softball selection show.
Last season, they pulled off one of the biggest upsets in school history with a 3-2 win at No. 2 UCLA.
But they lost the next two games after that and their season was over. They’ve failed to get out of the last two Los Angeles regionals.
Friday’s game starts at 5:30 p.m. GCU (48-11) is the No. 4 seed with Pac-12 champion UCLA (37-10) again No. 1. The Lopes set a season record for wins this year, breaking last year’s 47win season.
UCLA is the sixth overall seed in the national tournament. Mountain West champion San Diego State (31-18) is the No. 3 seed in the L.A. Regional and will play No. 4 and overall No. 15 Virginia Tech (39-12-1) at 3 p.m. on ESPNU on Friday.
The Lopes face a UCLA team that is on a roll. The Bruins have won their last eight games and 15 of their last 16, led by two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year Maya Brady, who is hitting .403 with 15 home runs and 61 RBIs.
GCU power hitter Ramsay Lopez, a graduate player, has 69 career home runs, which is tied with Brady for the fourth-most active Division I players.
The stunning 3-2 win over UCLA last year was short-lived, as the Lopes then lost to San Diego State and Liberty to end their season.