United Athletic Conference

It is finally time for the 2022 NCAA women’s soccer season to begin, and the WAC will be well represented in the first week of nonconference play. A total of 22 matches involving league members are on the docket for week one of the new campaign.

Defending champion Grand Canyon was predicted to repeat as the top team in the 2022 WAC Women’s Soccer Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The Lopes received eight first-place votes and 117 voting points to enter the season as the conference favorite based on polling of all 12 women’s soccer member head coaches. Last year’s league runner-up Utah Valley received the remaining four first-place votes and placed second in the 2022 predicted order of finish with 110 points.

Grand Canyon junior forward Gianna Gourley was selected as the 2022 WAC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year by the conference head coaches. Gourley is the leading returning scorer in the conference after logging 10 goals and 24 total points across 22 matches (13 starts) for the Lopes in 2021.

Utah Valley redshirt junior defender Jenna Shepherd was chosen as the 2022 WAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Shepherd has been a first-team all-conference choice in each of the past two seasons with the Wolverines and has helped guide the team to 22 shutouts in that time.

A total of four teams from the WAC crossed the 10-win plateau during the fall 2021 season, including Grand Canyon (16), Utah Valley (13) and Stephen F. Austin (10). A conference record five teams, Boise State (13), Louisiana Tech (12), San Jose State (11), Nevada and Utah State (10), each won 10 or more matches in 2009.

Grand Canyon’s 2021 women’s soccer tournament championship was the first title claimed by a team other than Seattle U or Utah Valley dating back to 2013. The Lopes are trying to become the fourth different WAC school to successfully defend the women’s soccer crown since the inaugural tournament in 1995.