WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2018-19 GAME NOTES Sarah Woodward, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications · Office: (602) 639-7951 · Cell: (608) 576-1518 · E-mail: [email protected] GRAND CANYON UTAH VALLEY 2018-19 SCHEDULE & RECORD LOPES V WOLVERINES (2-8, 0-0 WAC) S (6-7, 0-0 WAC) OVERALL RECORD: 2-8 WAC: 0-0 | Non-Conference: 2-8 THURSDAY, JANUARY 3 | 6 P.M. (MT) | OREM, UTAH Home: 2-3 | Away: 0-5 | Neutral: 0-0 GAME 11 - UTAH VALLEY NOVEMBER All times listed in MT The Grand Canyon women's basketball team opens up its 2018-19 conference campaign at Utah Valley on 5 Benedictine (Exhib.) W, 72-60 Thursday night. The Lopes and the Wolverines met three times last season, including GCU's tournament-opening 9 Incarnate Word W, 74-63 victory over UVU. Senior ShaRon Miller led the Lopes through a 2-8 non-conference showing with 10.5 ppg and 14 East Carolina L, 59-47 5.8 rebounds per game. Fellow senior AJ Cephas is averaging 9.5 ppg and a team-best 6.2 rpg. Laura Piera (9.2 17 UNC-Wilmington L, 77-55 ppg, 5.3 apg) leads GCU in assists. 23 Indiana State L, 88-81 (2OT) TODAY’S MATCHUP GCU QUICK FIVE 24 LIU Brooklyn W, 65-62 (OT) 1. Head coach Nicole Powell is in her second season at DECEMBER LOPES 2018-19 UVU the helm after finishing 16-14 overall last season and 2 UC Santa Barbara L, 66-55 2-8 Win-Loss 6-7 guiding the Lopes to a semifinal appearance in their 7 Montana L, 69-47 first-ever WAC tournament. 11 Portland State L, 60-55 Scoring 16 Long Beach State L, 57-50 -9.2 Margin -2.0 2. The pair of newcomers in redshirt senior AJ Cephas and freshman Laura Piera earned preseason All-WAC 20 Santa Clara L, 75-55 58.4 Scoring Avg. 64.5 honors on the second team. JANUARY .446 FG Pct. .430 3. GCU finished fourth in conference play last season and was picked to finish fourth this season by the 3 Utah Valley* 6 p.m. .370 3-Point FG .298 league's head coaches. 5 Seattle U* 3 p.m. Pct. 10 New Mexico State* 6 p.m. 4. The Lopes welcome nine new players this season, .543 FT Pct. .793 12 UTRGV* 2 p.m. including four transfers and five freshman. Redshirt 17 Chicago State* 6 p.m. senior AJ Cephas, juniors Da'jah Daniel and Destiny 31.2 Rebounds 35.9 19 Kansas City* 1 p.m. Arvinger and sophomore Jenay Bojorquez join GCU 26 California Baptist* 2 p.m. 14.3 Assists 13.1 from other teams, while Kennedi Shorts, Taylor 18.0 Turnovers 18.4 Caldwell, Laura Piera, Carla Balague and Venla Varis begin their collegiate careers with the Lopes. FEBRUARY 5.1 Steals 10.2 2 CSU Bakersfield* 2 p.m. 5. GCU will host a four-game tournament at home over 7 UTRGV* 6 p.m. 2.0 Blocks 2.6 Thanksgiving with LIU Brooklyn, Indiana State and UC 9 New Mexico State* 2 p.m. Irvine. 14 Kansas City* 6 p.m. PROBABLE STARTING FIVE 16 Chicago State* 2 p.m. 21 California Baptist* 7 p.m. MARCH 2 CSU Bakersfield* 2 p.m. 7 Utah Valley* 6 p.m. 9 Seattle U* 2 p.m. 13-16 WAC Tournament Las Vegas, Nev. KAVITA LAURA VENLA AJ SHARON 4 AKULA 5 PIERA 21 VARIS 23 CEPHAS 53 MILLER NO. PLAYER POS. GP/GS PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% FT% 4 Kavita Akula G 10/10 6.3 2.1 2.1 0.6 0.1 .344 .500 * Denotes WAC games Home games in bold 5 Laura Piera PG 9/9 9.2 3.2 5.3 1.4 0.3 .534 .452 21 Venla Varis G 10/10 8.3 0.8 0.9 0.2 0.0 .418 .625 23 AJ Cephas F 6/5 9.5 6.2 1.8 0.8 0.7 .375 .563 53 ShaRon Miller C 10/10 10.5 5.8 1.3 0.6 0.3 .519 .605 ‹ 1 › QUICK FACTS / ROSTERS / MEDIA INFO WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2018-19 GRAND CANYON NUMERIC ROSTER COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT No . Name Pos . HT YR Hometown (Previous School) WBB Contact . Sarah Woodward 2 ..Kennedi Shorts. F. 6-1. Fr. .Long Beach, Calif. (Long Beach Poly) Office Phone . 602-639-7951 4 ..Kavita Akula. G. .5-5. Sr. .Bhilai, India (Garden City CC) Cell Phone . 608-576-1518 5 ..Laura Piera . .G. .5-9. Fr. Barcelona, Spain (Basket Almeda) Email . sarah woodward@gcu. edu. 10 ..Camille Hailey. G. .5-9. So. Los Angeles, Calif. (Serra) 11 ..Taylor Caldwell. .G. .5-9. Fr. Bakersfield, Calif. (Bakersfield) 12 ..Carla Balague. F. .6-2. Fr. Barcelona, Spain (Femeni Sant Adria) GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY INFORMATION 14 ..Venla Varis. .G. 5-11. Fr. Vantaa, Finland (Makelanrinteen Senior High) 23 ..AJ Cephas. F. 6-0. R-Sr. Antioch, Calif. (Nevada/Deer Valley) School . Grand Canyon University 32 ..Taylor Howard . .G. 5-11. R-Fr. Houston, Texas (Hightower) Location . Phoenix, . Ariz . 34 ..Da'jah Daniel . .F. .6-4. Jr. Killeen, Texas (Trinity Valley CC/Harker Heights) Founded . .1949 . 53 ..ShaRon Miller. C. 6-0. Sr. Blaine, Minn. (Northland CC/Blaine) Enrollment . 20,500 President . Brian Mueller 2018-19 GRAND CANYON ALPHABETICAL ROSTER Vice President of Athletics . Mike. Vaught No . Name Pos . HT YR Hometown (Previous School) Faculty Representative . Claude Pensis 4 ..Kavita Akula. G. .5-5. Sr. .Bhilai, India (Garden City CC) Affiliation . NCAA Division I 12 ..Carla Balague. F. .6-2. Fr. Barcelona, Spain (Femeni Sant Adria) Nickname . .Lopes . 11 ..Taylor Caldwell. .G. .5-9. Fr. Bakersfield, Calif. (Bakersfield) Mascot. Thunder. 23 ..AJ Cephas. F. 6-0. R-Sr. Antioch, Calif. (Nevada/Deer Valley) Colors . Purple, Black & White 34 ..Da'jah Daniel . .F. .6-4. Jr. Killeen, Texas (Trinity Valley CC/Harker Heights) Conference . .Western Athletic Conference (WAC) 10 ..Camille Hailey. G. .5-9. So. Los Angeles, Calif. (Serra) Athletics Website: . www GCULopes. com. 32 ..Taylor Howard . .G. 5-11. R-Fr. Houston, Texas (Hightower) 53 ..ShaRon Miller. C. 6-0. Sr. Blaine, Minn. (Northland CC/Blaine) MEDIA INFORMATION 5 ..Laura Piera . .G. .5-9. Fr. Barcelona, Spain (Basket Almeda) The Grand Canyon Athletics Department is 2 ..Kennedi Shorts. F. 6-1. Fr. .Long Beach, Calif. (Long Beach Poly) served by a communications office staff that 14 ..Venla Varis. .G. 5-11. Fr. Vantaa, Finland (Makelanrinteen Senior High) works diligently to promote the individual and team accomplishments of student- athletes, coaches and staff . The office members handle all sport and department communications and media relations needs, and are happy to serve the working media in any way possible . Our staff will fulfill all GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY ARENA PROGRAM HISTORY reasonable requests . Opened. Sept. 1, 2011 First Year of Basketball at GCU ��������������������������� 1988-89 Credentials All members of the office follow Capacity . .7,000 All-Time Record . 385-441 (.466) the guidelines set forth by the NCAA and Arena Attendance Record. .7,413(1/9/16) All-Time Division I Record . .68-60 (.531) the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in BASKETBALL STAFF All-Time WAC Record (reg. season) ���������� 34-24 (.586) governing the issuance of credentials . All All-Time WAC Tournament Record. 1-1 (.500) Head Coach . Nicole Powell (2nd Season) credential requests should be submitted to PRONUNCIATION GUIDE the sport contacts . Alama Mater . Stanford Grand Canyon Record ���������������������������������18-22(.450) Kavita Akula . .Kuh-vee-tuh Uh-coo-luh E-mail Releases, game notes and advisories WAC Record . 9-5 (.643) Carla Balague. .Bal-UH-gay are e-mailed to media that cover GCU on a Overall Record . 18-22 (.450) AJ Cephas . .SEE-fas regular basis . Media wishing to be added to Assistant Coach . Nikki Blue (UCLA) Da'jah Daniel. .Day-JUH the e-mail list for women’s basketball should Assistant Coach . Brad Langston (San Jose St.) Camille Hailey. Cuh-meal contact sarah woodward@gcu. edu. Assistant Coach . Taylor High (Kansas) ShaRon Miller. SHAY-ron Online Updated bios, notes, rosters, schedules, Director of Ops. Chelsea Turner (Cameron) Venla Varis. V-ARE-us statistics, quotes, etc ., will be available Video Coordinator ��������������McGhee Mann (S. Carolina) throughout the season for every sport on Basketball Office Phone . 602-639-6587 ‹ 2 › WOMEN'S BASKETBALL 2018-19 GAME NOTES LOPES PICKED FOURTH IN PRESEASON POLLS SCOUTING UTAH VALLEY On Oct. 10, the WAC released its preseason rankings as voted on by the head coaches of Utah Valley finished non-conference play with a 6-7 record, as the Wolverines beat the league’s nine schools. GCU was projected to finish fourth in both the coaches poll and the UC Santa Barbara, University of La Verne, Ottawa, Arizona Christian, Weber State and UC media poll. Riverside. Most recently, UVU fell on the road at Cal State Fullerton, 56-55. 2018-19 PRESEASON WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACHES POLL Utah Valley is led in scoring after the non-conference campaign by Jordan Holland (12.9 Rank Team (First-place votes) Points ppg) and Eve Braslis (10.3 ppg). Braslis leads the Wolverines with 6.8 rebounds per game, 1. New Mexico State (7) 62 while Holland is second with 5.7 rpg. Maria Carvalho tops the UVU roster with 4.7 assists per 2. CSU Bakersfield (2) 56 game. 3. Seattle U 49 Last season, the Lopes and the Wolverines split the pair of conference matchups, as the 4. GRAND CANYON 45 Lopes won by 20 points in Phoenix and UVU won by 20 points in Orem.