GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa women's soccer will have a ton of momentum heading into the RMAC Tournament after they completed the regular season with a 1-0 home win over Westminster.
 
The Mavericks will be the No. 6 seed in the RMAC Tournament. They finish the regular season 10-7-1 overall and 8-4 in conference. All four losses were to teams that finished above CMU in the standings – in fact, this win over Westminster bucked a previous trend that saw the Mavs undefeated against teams below them in the standings and winless against teams above them.

The Mavs won despite being outshot by their opponents – a rarity for a team that leads the RMAC in shots per game. Westminster took 21 total shots and put eight on target, but goalkeeper Chloe Dody made eight saves, the second-highest single-game total of her career. The Mavericks were still fairly potent offensively, taking 14 attempts and putting five shots on goal.

Colorado Mesa jumped out in front early in the 13^th minute. Addie Randel drew a foul to earn the Mavs a dangerous free kick just outside the 18-yard box. Haley Klasner took a shot off the free kick and the spin on the ball fooled Westminster goalkeeper Kelsea Cracroft, who managed to palm the ball up in the air as she was falling away from it.

The Maverick attackers were prepared and had crashed the goal looking for a loose ball, so when it appeared, multiple Mavericks were waiting to tap it in with no defense in between them and the net. It ended up being Sophia Beames who poked it past the attempted recovery of Cracroft for her second goal of the season. It was Klasner's 11^th assist, tying her for the RMAC lead.

At the time, it seemed hard to believe that would be the only goal of the match. Westminster came out fast and forced two quickfire saves from Dody within the first minute of game time. Dody made five saves in the first half alone. At the other end, Lila Dere had three shots blocked as the Griffins defense blanketed her all night, while Mikayla Eccher forced a save from Cracroft diving to her right.

The Griffins, who had a chance to get into the conference's top three with a win but will instead be the No. 4 seed, pushed hard for an equalizer in the second half, ripping 13 shots in the final 45 minutes and taking six of the final seven shots of the match. The Maverick defense held tough with stalwart center backs Kaydree Rapp and Ally Wachtel each playing the full 90 minutes, blocking multiple shots and making several key tackles.

With the victory, the Mavericks reach 10 wins for the 11^th time in school history, but this season and last season are the only such years in the past decade.

Lila Dere took seven shots in today's match, giving her 110 for the season. That ties her own single-season school record that she set last season. Dere will break the record with just one shot attempt in CMU's upcoming RMAC Tournament quarter-final – a near certainty given that Dere leads Division II in shot attempts per game. Dere is also one point away from tying and two points away from breaking the school single-season points record. She has already set the CMU single-season goal scoring and all-time goal scoring and points scoring marks this season.

The Mavs' first-round postseason opponent is an intriguing one – Regis. The Rangers earned the No. 3 seed by going 9-2-1 in the RMAC while going 10-5-2 overall. In a testament to the strength and competitiveness of the RMAC this season, Regis entered the final day of the season with a chance to win the regular season title but fell 2-0 to champions Colorado School of Mines and dropped down to third.

Longtime Maverick fans will likely remember that Regis ended CMU's season last year in the RMAC Tournament semifinals, when the Mavericks were the No. 1 seed but the fourth-seeded Rangers sprung a 3-0 upset. Regis also defeated CMU earlier this year by a 3-2 score.

The quarterfinal match will take place at Regis on Sunday, October 30, but the time is yet to be determined. Should the Mavs win, the semi-final would be November 2.