GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – With the last two matches of the regular season coming up this weekend, Colorado Mesa men's soccer has everything to play for as they strive to qualify for the RMAC Tournament.

After defeating South Dakota Mines 6-0 but falling 2-0 to Regis, CMU has 10 points and a 3-4-1 conference record. The Mavs are tied for seventh place in the 11-team RMAC, with the top six schools making the postseason.

The Mavericks will welcome first-place Colorado School of Mines to Grand Junction on Friday at 7 p.m. before the regular-season finale against Colorado Christian on Sunday at 11 a.m. The game time for Sunday was recently changed as all RMAC matches will be kicking off at the same time on the last day of the season. Sunday's match will also be Senior Day for the Mavs' nine outgoing seniors.

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa cruised against South Dakota Mines, outshooting the Hardrockers 25-5 during a 6-0 win. Daisuke Takanaka scored twice while Ethan Anderson, Matheus Lazzuri, Isa Trujillo and Alec Fronapfel also scored. It was the first goal of the season for Fronapfel, who led CMU in goals last year. The Mavericks played the entire 90 minutes without committing a foul.

RECAPS: South Dakota Mines | Regis

The Mavs kept up the offensive pressure against Regis but couldn't convert it into goals. CMU took 34 shots, nearly triple the Rangers' total of 12, but Regis goalkeeper Greg L'Hommedieu made 10 saves in an RMAC Goalkeeper of the Week-winning performance.

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
The Mavericks need a pair of good results this weekend in order to continue their season in the RMAC Tournament. Here is a look at the top of the current RMAC standings ahead of the final week of the regular season, with the top six teams qualifying for the RMAC Tournament:
 

School	RMAC Record	Pts.
Colorado School of Mines	7-1	21
CSU Pueblo	6-1-1	19
UCCS	5-1-2	17
Westminster	5-2-1	16
Colorado Christian	4-2-2	14
Regis	3-3-2	11
Colorado Mesa	3-4-1	10
MSU Denver	3-4-1	10

 
Colorado Mesa cannot catch Westminster since the Griffins have a six-point cushion and the head-to-head conference tiebreaker over CMU. Among teams that the Mavs can catch, Regis is on the road against Adams State and Fort Lewis, who have a combined nine points between them.

Colorado Christian faces Westminster on the road before traveling to CMU on Sunday. Should Colorado Christian lose to Westminster while CMU ties or beats Colorado School of Mines on Friday, that would create a win-and-in scenario for the Mavs in Sunday's match. Colorado Christian would clinch a tournament spot with a win or tie vs. Westminster (or against CMU).

Senior Sunday
Sunday afternoon's match against Colorado Christian will also be Senior Day. This decorated group of seniors won a regular season RMAC championship during the Spring 2021 COVID season and won the RMAC Tournament in fall 2021. Departing seniors will also include Ethan Anderson and Connor Durant, the fifth and sixth All-Americans in program history. Anderson won RMAC Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2020 and won the award outright in 2021. Durant was the 2021 RMAC Goalkeeper of the Year.

A total of nine Mavericks will be recognized as outgoing seniors: goalkeeper Durant, defenders Anderson, Isa Trujillo, Jorge Rodriguez, Gabriel Saturno and Jabari Anthony, and midfielders Colton Shafter, Daisuke Takanaka and Jannick Lange.

Revenge Minded
Colorado School of Mines will no doubt have had the Mavericks circled on the calendar for a number of reasons. While the Orediggers are leading the pack to win their sixth consecutive RMAC regular-season title, CMU broke what had been a streak of four consecutive RMAC Tournament Championships for Mines last season by defeating CSU Pueblo, who had knocked off Mines in the semifinals.

The Orediggers and Mavericks faced one another in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season, with the two teams playing to a scoreless draw over 110 minutes before Colorado Mesa advanced on penalty kicks. Alec Fronapfel, Colton Shafer and Ethan Anderson converted PK's for CMU while Connor Durant capped an All-American season by making three spot kick saves to send the Mavs on to the next round.

The Mavericks were also narrowly picked over Mines in the preseason poll, with CMU receiving eight first-place votes from conference head coaches and Mines getting the other three.

Tiki-Takanaka
Senior midfielder Daisuke Takanaka recently became the Mavs' leading scorer for the season after his two-goal effort against South Dakota Mines.

Takanaka has six goals and three assists for a total of 15 points, just ahead of freshman forward Manuel Ponce Casas, who has six goals and two assists. Takanaka already has a career-high in goals and is currently tied with his season career-high in assists. His two-goal performance against South Dakota Mines was the first multi-goal game of his career.

Conference Leaderboards
Colorado Mesa leads the RMAC with 40 goals and ranks second in the conference in assists (28) and points (108), trailing CSU Pueblo in those two categories. The Mavs rank fifth in shots (234) and sixth in goals-against average (1.34).

Individually, Manuel Ponce Casas and Daisuke Takanaka are tied for seventh with six goals, while Fernando Morales is tied for 10^th with five. Diogo Silva is tied for ninth with four assists.

About Colorado School of Mines
Colorado School of Mines will ride into Grand Junction on top of the RMAC standings and with a newly-minted No. 16 national ranking.

The Orediggers have a 7-1 conference record and a 10-4-2 overall mark. They suffered their first RMAC loss last Friday, 2-0 against then-No. 3 CSU Pueblo, but rebounded with a 1-0 win against then-No. 17 UCCS last Sunday. Prior to last week, Mines had won their opening six conference matches while outscoring opponents 21-3 along the way.

Mines' attack is led by Tristan Semelsberger, who scored the game-winner against UCCS and is tied for third in the conference with 10 goals. Beyond Semelsberger, the Orediggers have two players with five goals in junior forward Chris Seery (5 G, 3 A) and graduate midfielder Michael Sprauer (5 G), plus two players with five assists in senior forward Azad Iliozer (4 G, 5 A) and graduate defender Lucas King (1 G, 5 A).

Colorado School of Mines takes the second-most shots in the conference at 15.38 per game. Mines' defensive unit has been a blanket in front of goalkeeper Brain Doherty, who has a 1.08 goals-against average and a .717 save percentage but has only needed to make 2.75 saves per match.

Head Coach Greg Mulholland has put together a dynastic run of success since moving from assistant coach to head coach in 2017. In Mulholland's five seasons in charge, Mines has never failed to win the regular season RMAC championship and had won four straight RMAC Tournament Championships before losing to CSU Pueblo in last season's semifinals, opening the door for Colorado Mesa to take the crown.

About Colorado Christian
Colorado Christian enters with a 4-2-2 RMAC record and an 8-4-4 overall mark but are coming off what may be the biggest week in program history.

Not far removed from three consecutive one-win seasons from 2017-2019, the Cougars have slowly built themselves into a conference contender, reaching 10 wins last season. They made a statement last week by tying then-No. 17 UCCS 0-0 before shocking then-No. 3 CSU Pueblo 2-0 last Sunday.

Forward Tobi Osifodunrin scored both goals in the win against Pueblo (his first two of the year) and was named the RMAC Offensive Player of the Week while senior Grant Roloff took home Defensive Player of the Week honors for helping hold the two nationally-ranked teams scoreless.

Junior forward Gabe Roloff (Grant's younger brother) is the Cougars' leading scorer for the season with five goals and two assists. Sophomore forward Adrian Diez is just behind with four goals and two assists and junior Miguel Fonseca has two goals and four assists.

Brad Camp is entering his fourth season at Colorado Christian. After presiding over the third of three straight one-win seasons in 2019, Camp has engineered a steady turnaround at CCU, culminating in a school-record 10 wins last season with a legitimate opportunity to tie or break that mark this season. Prior to arriving at CCU, Camp was an assistant coach at East Tennessee State and Maryville College.

Series Histories
Colorado Mesa has struggled against Colorado School of Mines, managing only a 5-21-2 record all-time against the Orediggers. The most recent match-up between the two schools is the defining win for CMU in the history of the series. In the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament, the teams played to a scoreless draw over 110 minutes (counting as a tie in the all-time series) but CMU upset the Orediggers on penalty kicks to advance. The other previous tie came in 2018, when the then-No. 24 Mavericks held the then-No. 5 Orediggers to a 1-1 draw in Golden.

Aside from the two draws, CMU has not won outright since 2016. A run of four straight Maverick wins over the 2013 and 2014 seasons are the only wins Colorado Mesa has ever had. Mines is unbeaten in its last eight match-ups with CMU.

The series history with Colorado Christian is another story, as the Mavs hold a 20-0-2 all-time advantage. The time may be now for the Cougars to notch their first win, however. The two schools tied 1-1 last season during what was the most successful year in program history for CCU, and the Cougars will be motivated to reach their first RMAC Tournament in program history with the right results this week. Ethan Anderson scored in the draw against CCU last season.

In the Polls
Three RMAC teams are ranked in the national poll for the first time all season. Despite last week's loss to Colorado Christian that dropped them from No. 3, CSU Pueblo leads the way at No. 11, followed by Colorado School of Mines at No. 16 and UCCS at No. 20.

Five RMAC teams are in the South Central regional poll, with Pueblo at No. 2, Mines at No. 3 and UCCS at No. 4, followed by Colorado Christian at No. 8 and Westminster at No. 10.

Coach's Corner
Mavericks head coach Jon Fridal is in his third season in charge at CMU, boasting a .783 winning percentage from the first two seasons.

In his first year, played in spring 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mavs went 6-1-1, including 5-0-1 in conference play, as Fridal took home RMAC Coach of the Year honors, becoming the second coach in the history of the program to do so.

In his first full campaign in the fall of 2021, Fridal led the Mavericks to a 16-4-2 record, a second place RMAC regular-season finish, an RMAC Tournament title and a win in the NCAA Tournament.

Along with assistant coach Brandon Bautista, Fridal was honored as the United Soccer Coaches South Central Regional Staff of the Year in 2021.