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Utah Valley opens the 2025 WAC men’s soccer tournament on Sunday as the No. 6 seed, facing off with the No. 3 seed Grand Canyon Lopes at Lancer Soccer Field on the campus of California Baptist in Riverside.
Sunday’s match is scheduled for a 5 p.m. MT kickoff, and will be streamed live on ESPN+. Live stats will be available at GoUVU.com/stats.
The Wolverines qualified for their seventh-straight WAC Tournament in a full season after earning a 2-2 draw against Utah Tech on Halloween, then getting some help from the Lopes as they downed UNLV 3-2 to eliminate the Rebels from postseason contention.
LAST TIME OUT
Utah Valley saw an early lead slip away, as Utah Tech rallied from a 2-0 deficit inside of 30 minutes to earn the draw. The Wolverines have scored first in all five true road games so far this season, and in all but two games overall.
Isaac Emojong scored his sixth goal of the season against the Blazers last Friday to become just the third UVU underclassman to score that many goals in a season. Emojong tied eventual All-American Paul Hoffmeister, who scored six as a sophomore in 2015, and with two more goals would break Matt Gay’s record of seven set in his 2014 freshman campaign.
Noah Pogue scored his fourth goal of the year against Utah Tech in the third minute, the team’s fastest goal of the season to date. If Pogue scores another goal, it’ll be just the second time in program history the Wolverines had three players with five or more goals in a single season (2015).
Kolby Sessions returned to the lineup after missing four games due to injury. In 10 starts, Sessions has six shutouts and has only allowed multiple open-play goals in one game this season (at GCU). With Sessions in goal, the Wolverines have the best goals-against average in the WAC at 0.7 per game.
Entering the WAC Tournament, Utah Valley boasts the top offense in the conference, ranking 14th nationally in goals/game and 21st in assists/game (both 2.21).
Keegan Oyler leads the WAC and ranks 9th in the nation in total assists with eight, but has not registered an assist in his last four games after shifting from his normal wingback position to the back line as a centerback. Oyler’s eight assists are the 4th-most in a single season in program history, and his 0.57 assists/game rate is on pace to be the 2nd-best behind Jojea Kwizera (0.65, 2021).
SERIES HISTORY VS GCU
Grand Canyon won the previous meeting this season, 3-1 at home. After Pogue’s opener, GCU scored three straight, including a 2nd-half brace from Junior Diouf. Utah Valley is winless in its last five meetings with GCU, and has not won in regulation against the Lopes since 2016. UVU is 4-7-1 all-time against GCU, with the last win coming in overtime in 2019. This season’s prior meeting was just the 2nd in the 12-game series decided by multiple goals.
SCOUTING THE LOPES
Led by elite freshman Junior Diouf, the Lopes tied for 2nd in the WAC this season but lost out on tiebreaker to Utah Tech for the No. 2 seed. Entering postseason play, Diouf leads the WAC and ranks 3rd in the nation with goals with 14, earning WAC Freshman and Offensive Player of the Year honors. The Lopes have also been the best defensive team in the WAC, allowing just 0.875 goals/game, and are the only team in the league to allow fewer goals than UVU this season.
UTAH VALLEY AT THE WAC TOURNAMENT
The Wolverines have not advanced at the WAC Tournament since 2019, when the team made it to the championship game before falling in PK’s to No. 1 Seattle U. Utah Valley has qualified for the WAC Tournament every year under Kyle Beckerman, but are 0-4 in the previous trips. Three of those four losses are by one goal, however, including a 3-2 overtime loss at UNLV in 2023 and a 1-0 loss on a late PK to SJSU last year.
ALL-WAC HONORS
Utah Valley placed four on the postseason All-WAC teams, which were announced by the league on Friday. Midfielders Isaac Emojong and Gilles Aurelien and defender Keegan Oyler were named to the All-WAC second team. Lewis Knecht was named to the WAC All-Freshman team.
UP NEXT
With a win on Sunday, Utah Valley would advance to the WAC Tournament semifinals on Wednesday, where the Wolverines would face off with the Utah Tech Trailblazers. Kickoff for that match is scheduled for 5 p.m. MT/4 p.m. PT, and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
