The Grand Canyon University women's soccer team (0-4-1) dropped a 2-1 hard-fought double overtime contest against Southern Utah (2-4-1) Friday at Lumberjack Stadium in Flagstaff, Ariz. Riley Richardson netted her first career goal to spark the Antelopes offense in the NAU Mountain Classic opener.

"We played great," said head coach Stevie Gill. "We played particularly well in the second half and created a ton of chances. They scored against the run of play and we fought back with a goal to send it into overtime. In all honesty, it was a very even game and could have gone either way. We were very unlucky tonight."

Neither team was able to find the back of the net in the first 45 minutes of action, as freshman keeper Blakely Fraasch made a pair of saves to eliminate any scoring chances for the Thunderbirds. Maria Monterroso fired a pair of first half shots, with one of those being on goal. Sirena Seymour tallied the other shot for Canyon in the opening period.

The Lopes and Thunderbirds were unable to generate any offense through nearly the entire second half, until a goal was scored by each side in less than a two-minute span in the contests final five minutes. Southern Utah struck first, netting a goal in the 86^th minute to take the lead, 1-0.

GCU answered in the 88^th minute when Riley Richardson curled a free kick into the back of the net to knot the score at 1-1. The goal marked the first of the career for the sophomore forward.

"A couple of the girls had some excellent performances tonight," added Gill. "Riley Richardson, Maria Monterroso, and Madison Reynolds were great throughout the contest."

The score would remain 1-1 at the end of regulation and the match headed to a 10-minute overtime period. After 10 minutes of overtime play, the scoreboard continued to show one apiece for each team and the game headed to double overtime. Southern Utah scored in the 105^th minute to end the game and secure the win.

GCU collected nine shots on the night, with Seymour recording three shots, two of which were on goal. Richardson, Monterroso, Caitlin Cartwright, Brylee Hawkins and Taylor Layton put one shot on goal apiece to contribute to the offensive effort. Fraasch finished with six saves in net.

"We are missing a few key players and need to get them back in order to be more dangerous up front," added Gill. "We will keep fighting and look forward to the game on Sunday against NAU."

The Lopes will be back in action Sunday when they take on tournament host Northern Arizona in a contest slated to get underway at 1 p.m. Fans can follow the action from Flagstaff via a link for live stats at www.gculopes.com.

Southern Utah 2, GCU 1

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