This weekend the men's soccer team will travel to Golden, Colo. and Rapid City, S.D. for matches against Colorado School of Mines and South Dakota School of Mines, respectively. They first will take on No. 5 Colorado School of Mines on Friday at 4:05 pm. Following this match the Mavs will travel to South Dakota for a match against the Hardrockers at 11 am on Sunday.  The Mavericks will enter Friday night's match with a 7-1-2 RMAC record. They suffered their first loss of the season last weekend in a 0-2 loss to Westminster.

NCAA Division II Showcase

The Orediggers enter Friday night's match with an undefeated conference record of 10-0 and an overall record of 13-1-1. They are currently on an eight game winning streak. In Poll 7 of the United States Coaches NCAA Division II Men rankings the Mavericks were placed in the No. 24 spot and the Orediggers were placed at No. 5. This is the Mavericks first nationally ranked opponent of the 2018 season.

This match will be highlighted in the 2018 NCAA Division II showcase that will be televised by Altitude Sports and shown on Facebook Live and Periscope. Game time is set for 4:05 pm on Friday. These two teams have accounted for the last four RMAC regular season championships and the last six RMAC tournament championships.

Since the Mavericks have been under the direction of head coach Todd Padgett the Mavericks have defeated the Orediggers in three of the last five RMAC regular season meetings. The last time these two teams met was last year when the Orediggers ended the Mavericks RMAC Tournament run defeating the Mavs 2-1.

NCAA Regional Rankings

On Wednesday afternoon the NCAA released the first regional rankings.  The Mavericks were placed in the No. 3 position for the South Central Region. Ranked No. 1 was MSU Texas and following them was Colorado School of Mines as No. 2.  This is the first poll of the season leading up to the NCAA selection show that takes place on Monday November 5 .

South Dakota School of Mines

The Hardrockers are 2-9-3 overall. They currently are tenth in RMAC with a 1-6-3 conference record. The Mavericks have never lost to the Hardrockers and they own the overall record of 6-0-1. The Mavericks have outscored them 23-6 dating back to the 2013 season. The Hardrockers are led by Ian DeBois who has five goals on the season.