GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Coming off a three-game slide against the top three teams in the conference standings, the Colorado Mesa women's soccer team will complete the challenging part of their schedule by facing the current fourth and fifth-place teams this weekend.

A 1-0 loss to No. 15 Colorado School of Mines and a 3-2 loss to Regis have the Mavs at 2-3 in the RMAC and 4-6-1 overall. The schedule only gets easier from here, however, as the three teams to beat CMU (including UCCS on September 25) currently have a combined RMAC record of 15-1-2.

During the week, Lila Dere scored two goals to become the all-time leading goal scorer in program history, passing Tiffany Thompson's mark of 36 with her 37^th career goal against Regis.

Up ahead, the Mavericks will face Fort Lewis at home on Friday night at 7 p.m. before traveling to face Western Colorado on the road on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Looking Back
The Mavs' first game this season against a nationally-ranked opponent was a narrow defeat thanks to the heroics of goalkeeper Chloe Dody, who made a career-high 12 saves against No. 15 Colorado School of Mines in a 1-0 loss.
Dody made nine saves in just the first half alone, passing her previous career-high of seven. Lila Dere and Haley Klasner had two shots on goal apiece for the Mavs.

RECAPS: Colorado School of Mines | Regis

Against Regis, the hosts were successful at immediately responding to anything the Mavericks did. Lila Dere scored twice, but within five minutes after each goal, Regis responded with two goals after the first CMU strike and a third goal after the second.

Grand Junction G.O.A.T
Redshirt sophomore forward Lila Dere has been rewriting the CMU record books since arriving from Fruita Monument High School, and the Grand Junction native crossed the biggest record off her list by becoming the Mavericks' all-time leading goal scorer with her second of two goals against Regis last Sunday.  

Dere now has 37 career goals in 39 career games. Tiffany Thompson, the previous record holder, achieved her career total of 36 over 43 games in just two seasons from 1997-1998.

Two other all-time 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 37 goals and six assists in her career, Dere is currently at 80 points and needs any combination of six points to pass Thompson and became the school's comprehensive scoring leader (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. Alisha Phillips is second on the list with 16 goals in 2002.

At 15 goals, Dere is currently tied for third all-time with Thompson in 1997, Lauren Sell in 2006 and herself from last year, but has seven regular season games plus any potential postseason matches to improve her total. Dere's 15 goals lead all of Division II this season.
 
Staying Busy
Goalkeeper Chloe Dody hasn't had much down time over the Mavs' recent stretch of games. Dating back to September 25 against UCCS, Dody has had three consecutive games with five or more saves. She set a career high against UCCS with seven saves and shattered it with 12, including nine in the first half, on Friday against Colorado School of Mines.

Dody has recorded five or more saves in seven out of her 10 starts this season. Her 49 total saves for the season ranks second in the RMAC, four behind Regis goalkeeper Katelyn Martin. She only needs nine more saves to match her total of 58 from 2021. Her save percentage this season is .766, compared to .784 a season ago.

No Minutes Off
Sophomore defender Kaydree Rapp has played in every minute of all 11 of CMU's matches so far this season for a total of 990 minutes. She has also racked up a pair of assists in the process while anchoring the Mavericks back line.

Rapp is in her first season with CMU after spending her freshman season at Rogers State. Rapp played every minute of all 17 matches over the entire season with the Hillcats in 2021 and will try to replicate the feat this year in a Maverick uniform.

If Rapp does play every minute of every game for an entire season, she would become the fourth overall player and second non-goalkeeper to do so for CMU. Goalkeepers Sarah Schnetzler (2003-2004) and Janelle Richmond-Buccola (2015) pulled it off for three consecutive years in the middle of the previous decade while defender Lauryn Lee became the most recent player and first outfield player to achieve the feat in 2016.

On the Leaderboards
Colorado Mesa is tied for the RMAC lead with Colorado School of Mines with 28 goals. The Mavs rank third in the RMAC with 18 assists and third with 74 points, although first-place UCCS (77) and second-place Colorado School of Mines (76) aren't far ahead.

The Mavericks have taken the most shots in the conference (213), at a clip of 19.36 per game that ranks eighth in all of Division II. The CMU goalkeepers rank eighth in the RMAC in goals-against average (1.46), seventh in save percentage (.743) and seventh in total saves (52).

Individually, Lila Dere leads all of Division II in goals (15), shots per game (6.45) and shots on goal per game (3.45). She ranks third in Division II with 32 points but leads the RMAC in that category, along with game-winning goals (three).
Evelyn Hammer ranks second in the RMAC behind Dere in points per game (1.57) and tied for sixth in shots on goal (11). Haley Klasner is tied for third in the RMAC with four assists.

About Fort Lewis
Fort Lewis will enter Friday night's matchup with an identical 4-6-1 record to the Mavs, with a 3-2 record in RMAC play. The Skyhawks have faced a vastly different conference schedule thus far than CMU, however, with their three wins coming against New Mexico Highlands, Colorado Christian and Adams State, who are a combined 3-13 in RMAC play.

They have lost conference games to UCCS and CSU Pueblo, who the Mavericks beat 4-1 in Grand Junction. The Skyhawks and Mavs had a pair of common nonconference opponents in Angelo State, who defeated FLC 1-0, and Lubbock Christian, who tied 0-0 with the Skyhawks. Crucially for CMU, Fort Lewis has yet to win away from Durango, with an 0-5 record on the road.

While the Skyhawks have a relatively stingy defense, conceding 14 goals, they have struggled offensively, scoring only nine. Junior Madyson Barela and senior Hannah Paschke are FLC's only multi-goal scorers with two apiece. Sophomore forward McKenna Ford has two assists.

Fort Lewis has a unique goalie rotation, revolving between three keepers and making a switch at halftime of every match this season. Junior Katie Dunbabin has started 10 matches but has not played more than 45 minutes in any of them. Sophomore Katelyn Rosenbaum has made the other start while coming in in relief five times, while sophomore Riley Bravin has six relief appearances and the best goals-against average and save percentage out of the three.

Head Coach Damian Clarke is in the fifth season of his second stint at Fort Lewis and his 12^th overall year coaching the Skyhawks. Clarke coached FLC from 2007-2013 and amassed five NCAA Tournament appearances during that span before departing for Midwestern State in the Lone Star Conference. After winning a Lone Star championship and making two more NCAA appearances in four years there, Clarke returned to Fort Lewis and compiled a 22-28-10 record in the opening four seasons of his second stint.

About Western Colorado
Western Colorado has a 5-5-1 record with a 3-2 mark in the RMAC. They have compiled wins over CSU Pueblo, New Mexico Highlands and Colorado Christian while dropping a narrow 1-0 decision to Adams State and a blowout 6-0 loss to UCCS.

Western Colorado played in Grand Junction as part of the Colorado Mesa Kickoff Weekend, playing CMU common opponents Cal State Dominguez Hills to a 1-1 draw and Nebraska-Kearney, who they defeated 1-0.

The Mountaineers are a young team this season. Freshman Reece Mercer has burst on the scene as WCU's leading scorer with one goal and four assists for six points. Fellow freshman Taylor Bottoms and senior Laura Pelino each have two goals. A pair of freshmen, Alex Peralta and Aubree Orosco, have split goalkeeper duties, with Orosco playing roughly 60% of the minutes and making 32 saves with a 1.20 goals-against average.

Head coach Amanda Rasso is in her third season with the Mountaineers. The Mountaineers have already equaled their win total of five from last season. Raso has links to Fort Lewis, as she played goalie for the Skyhawks from 2010-2013 and is in the top five in program history in wins and shutouts. She also served as an assistant coach for Fort Lewis from 2015-2017 and at Division I North Dakota.

Series Histories
Fort Lewis holds a slight lead in the all-time series with CMU, as the Mavericks have gone 16-20-7 against the Skyhawks. The Mavericks have the edge at home, however, going 9-7-6 in games played in Grand Junction. The Mavs have also won the last two matchups, each by 1-0 scores. Haley Klasner scored for CMU against Fort Lewis last season.

Colorado Mesa has fared much better against Western Colorado, boasting a 10-2-2 all-time record against their local rivals, although both losses came in Gunnison where Sunday's match will be played. Beginning in the 2016 season, the Mavs have won the past eight matches between the two schools, including a 3-0 win in 2021 and a 5-0 win in the spring 2021 season. Lila Dere scored twice in both matches.

In the Polls
Colorado School of Mines is the only RMAC team ranked in the national Top 25, currently sitting at No. 10. UCCS is receiving votes. The Mavs have faced (and lost to) two ranked teams this season, the aforementioned Orediggers and No. 22 Angelo State.

The Mavericks finished tied for second in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, receiving 125 points and three out of 13 first-place votes. The Mavs were even on points with the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, who received a conference-high five first-place votes, while Colorado School of Mines edged out both schools to finish first in the poll while also receiving three first-place votes.

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.