GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – With the regular season winding down, Colorado Mesa women's soccer has an opportunity to solidify its RMAC tournament standings with its final three games of the year all at home, two of which will be played this week.
The Mavericks began last week with a comfortable 4-0 win over Colorado Christian then endured a slight setback when MSU Denver, the league's top defensive team, clamped them down during a 1-0 loss.
The Mavs currently sit sixth in the RMAC standings with the top eight teams in the 15-team league advancing to the RMAC tournament.
Up ahead, CMU takes on Adams State on Friday at 4 p.m. before battling New Mexico Highlands at
1:30 p.m. Sunday's game time was recently changed due to RMAC protocols relating to the final day of the men's regular season. The game against Highlands will also be Senior Day for CMU's six outgoing seniors.
Looking Back
The Mavericks were dominant last Friday against Colorado Christian, getting two goals from dynamite forward
Lila Dere to send them off and running.
Mikayla Eccher and
Addie Randel also scored for the Mavs, who scored three times in the opening 37 minutes and had all four of their goals by the 60-minute mark of the match.
RECAPS:
Colorado Christian |
MSU Denver
On Sunday, the Mavs' high-flying offense met its match against an MSU Denver defense that has allowed an RMAC-low nine goals on the year. The Mavericks were held to a season-low five shots and didn't get a single shot attempt from Dere, who ranks second in the nation in shots per game (5.8) and leads in shots on goal per game (3.2). Goalkeeper
Chloe Dody made four saves in the losing effort.
Stuff the CHUF
It will be a full weekend of soccer at Community Hospital Unity Field. Both Friday's and Sunday's matches will be part of Grand Junction doubleheaders. Friday will feature the women vs. Adams State at 4 p.m. before the men play Colorado School of Mines at 7 p.m., while on Sunday, the men will open things up against Colorado Christian at 11 a.m. before the women face New Mexico Highlands at 1:30 p.m.
Sunday will be Senior Day for both programs. There will be ceremonies honoring outgoing seniors shortly before each contest.
Playoff Possibilities
As long as the Mavericks finish the season strong, they are in position to qualify for the RMAC tournament. Here is a look at the top of the RMAC standings, with the top eight teams set to qualify for the postseason:
| School |
RMAC Record |
Pts. |
| Regis |
9-0-1 |
28 |
| Colorado School of Mines |
8-0-2 |
26 |
| UCCS |
6-1-2 |
20 |
| Westminster |
6-2-1 |
19 |
| MSU Denver |
5-1-3 |
18 |
| Colorado Mesa |
5-4 |
15 |
| CSU Pueblo |
3-4-2 |
11 |
| Western Colorado |
3-6 |
9 |
| Fort Lewis |
3-6 |
9 |
Colorado Mesa's next two matches are against Adams State and New Mexico Highlands, who have a combined record of 3-14-1, before facing Westminster on Wednesday. Westminster plays the same opponents this weekend as CMU in inverse order, but should the Griffins and MSU Denver stumble in one or both of this week's matches, Wednesday's game could be a winner-take-all for the No. 4 seed and the first-round home match that would come with it.
MSU Denver, the other team that could factor in that conversation, closes things out against Western Colorado, Fort Lewis and 1-8 Black Hills State. The Roadrunners have the head-to-head tiebreaker over CMU due to beating them last Sunday, so the Mavs need to finish a full point ahead of MSU Denver to leap them in the standings. The Mavs hold head-to-head tiebreakers over CSU Pueblo, Western Colorado and Fort Lewis should they finish tied on points with any of those teams.
Senior Sunday
Sunday afternoon's match against New Mexico Highlands will also be Senior Day. In addition to navigating the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, this group of seniors helped the program to historic heights in 2021, as the team won its first RMAC conference championship since the year 2000 and achieved its first RMAC tournament win since 2011 last year.
Defender
Michaela Dangler, part of this year's group of exiting seniors, also became the first RMAC Defensive Player of the Year in program history last season.
Stella Bohlender, who has started 14 out of 15 matches at left back this season, is another notable name departing the team at the end of the season.
The six seniors who will be honored on Sunday are defenders Dangler, Bohlender,
Bobbie Golik and
Jacqueline Linn and forwards
Summer Mock and
Olivia Pietro.
Dere Dominance
Redshirt sophomore forward
Lila Dere scored twice against Colorado Christian to raise her season total to 17 goals, retaking the national Division II lead in the process. Dere extended her school-record career total to 39 goals with the pair of strikes. She passed Tiffany Thompson, who had 36 in her career, on October 2 against Regis.
Two other all-time CMU marks held by Thompson are also within Dere's sights. Immediately next up is Thompson's all-time career points scoring record of 85 (36 goals and 13 assists). With 39 goals and six assists in her career, Dere is currently at 84 points, so she will tie Thompson's record with an assist and break it with her next goal (one goal = 2 points, one assist = 1 point).
Dere also has a good chance of breaking Thompson's single-season goal scoring record of 21 goals, which Thompson set in 1998. With her two goals this week, Dere passed Alisha Phillips, who was second on the list with 16 goals in 2002.
On the Leaderboards
Colorado Mesa has 37 goals on the season, which is tied for second in the RMAC with Colorado School of Mines, trailing only UCCS (40). The Mavs rank third in the RMAC with 25 assists and 99 points, trailing the same two schools.
The Mavericks have taken the most shots in the conference (266) and rank second with 131 shots in goal, just one behind Mines for the conference lead. The Mavs rank in the top 25 in Division II in both categories. The CMU goalkeepers rank sixth in the RMAC in goals-against average (1.27), fifth in save percentage (.771) and sixth in total saves (64).
Lila Dere leads Division II with 17 goals this season, just ahead of a logjam of five players who all have 16. Dere ranks second in the nation in shots per game (5.8) and leads Division II in shots on goal per game (3.2).
Haley Klasner ranks second in the RMAC with eight assists, two behind league leader Alexa Maple of Westminster. Dere leads the conference with four game-winning goals.
Evelyn Hammer is tied for seventh in the conference with five goals.
About Adams State
Adams State is 2-6-1 in the RMAC and 3-9-1 overall. The Grizzlies have had some respectable results, shutting out both Western Colorado and Black Hills State in victories. They have had a tough go in the past three matches, however, losing 6-0 to MSU Denver and 7-0 to UCCS sandwiched around a 0-0 draw with CSU Pueblo.
The team has struggled offensively, scoring just six times in 13 matches. Half of those goals have been scored by junior midfielder Karlee Caballero, who has three out of ASU's four goals in RMAC play this season. Grad student midfielder Emily Chamberlain has scored twice, while senior Carena Harrison (one goal, one assist) and freshman Colette Tena (two assists) are the only other Grizzlies with points on the season.
Freshman Ashlyn Bartley has played every minute in goal for the Grizzles, conceding 29 goals against 53 saves and sporting a 2.23 goals-against average. She has four shutouts this season, and Adams State has not won or tied a game in which Bartley has conceded a goal.
Alex Greco is in his first season as the head coach at Adams State. Prior to coming to ASU, Greco was an assistant coach with the Division I Iowa State women's program. Greco has Division II head-coaching experience with Lynn, where he went 7-8-3 as the interim head coach in 2019 and led the Fighting Knights to a conference postseason berth.
About New Mexico Highlands
New Mexico Highlands is 1-12 overall on the year and 1-8 in the RMAC. Their lone win came against fellow 1-8 RMAC team Black Hills State on October 9. The Cowgirls followed up that win with a 0-2 week last week, losing 4-0 to UCCS and 2-1 to CSU Pueblo.
The Cowgirls have only managed four goals this season, getting one apiece from junior Melissa Olivares and freshmen Celest Dominguez, Jenny Mueller and Katy Rayner. Olivares leads the team with 13 shots and seven shots on goal while Rayner is not far behind with 12 and six, respectively.
New Mexico Highlands also has youth at goalkeeper in freshman Isabella Ortiz. Ortiz has made 56 saves while conceding 41 goals.
Bianca Contreras-Edwards has been the head coach of the Cowgirls since the 2019 season, and is 2-40 thus far during her tenure (New Mexico Highlands did not play at all during the COVID-19 affected 2020 season). Contreras-Edwards has worked her way up the ranks at NMHU, starting as a player before spending a year as a graduate assistant and three years as an assistant coach before earning the head job. Prior to transferring to Highlands, she won a CCCAA championship with San Bernardino Valley junior college as a player.
Series Histories
Colorado Mesa has comfortable leads in the all-time series against both upcoming opponents. They hold a 23-6-3 advantage over Adams State, which includes winning the past three and being unbeaten in the last five match-ups.
Adams State had a brief run of success recently, winning three consecutive matches during the 2014 and 2015 seasons. The Mavs won 2-1 in 2021, getting a goal from
Haley Klasner and a game-winner from
Sydney Hathaway.
The Mavericks hold a 22-10-5 advantage over New Mexico Highlands all-time. They are unbeaten in their last six matches against NMHU, with a 2018 draw interrupting five Maverick wins dating back to 2014.
Mikayla Eccher scored the first goal of her career in a 6-0 rout back in 2019. Things were much closer in 2021, with the 8-1 Mavericks needing overtime to defeat the 1-8 Cowgirls as
Michaela Dangler put in the game-winner in the 97
th minute with an assist from
Haley Klasner.
In the Polls
Colorado School of Mines is the only RMAC team ranked in the national Top 25, currently sitting at No. 10.
The RMAC has five teams in the 10-team South Central regional poll, including Mines at No. 2. Westminster is at No. 5, UCCS is at No. 6, MSU Denver is at No. 9 and Regis is at No. 10. The South Central also features Dallas Baptist, the Lone Star Conference leaders and the No. 1 team in the nation.
Coach's Corner
Mavericks head coach
Megan Remec is entering her third season at the helm of the CMU program.
In her debut campaign, played in spring 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Remec led the Mavericks to a winning 5-4-1 record and to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament for the first time since 2017.
In her first full season in fall 2021, CMU finished 14-4 with a 10-2 RMAC record, winning the program's first regular-season RMAC title since 2000. At the conclusion of the 2021 season, Remec was named the RMAC Coach of the Year, becoming just the second individual Colorado Mesa coach to win that honor and the first since that same 2000 season.
Prior to CMU, Remec spent five seasons as an assistant coach at RMAC rival MSU Denver and was also an assistant coach at Elmhurst College (Division III) in Illinois.
