GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Last season, the Colorado Mesa women's soccer team was picked seventh in the preseason poll before storming to a 10-2 conference record and a share of the RMAC regular season title.
With Thursday's release of the 2022 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Mavericks will not be sneaking up on anyone this time around.
The Mavs received a trio of first-place votes and finished tied for second with 125 points in the Preseason Coaches' Poll, in which each of the league's 13 head coaches project the order of finish without including their own team.
Colorado School of Mines emerged as the narrow conference favorites, receiving 128 points while also tallying three first-place votes. After tying for the regular-season title a season ago, Colorado Mesa and UCCS are tied for second this year with 125 points apiece, although the No. 8 nationally-ranked Mountain Lions received the highest number of first-place votes in the conference with five.
Behind the defined top three, Westminster was ranked fourth with 99 points. The Griffins finished sixth last season but ended the year on a five-game winning streak. MSU Denver received a single first-place vote and finished fifth with 93 points.
CSU Pueblo and Regis, each top-five finishers last year, came sixth and seventh in this year's poll with 89 and 85 points, respectively. Fort Lewis (70), Colorado Christian (65) and Black Hills State (49) rounded out the top 10, with Black Hills State receiving the final first place vote.
Western Colorado (37), Adams State (30) and New Mexico Highlands (19) rounded out the poll.
Colorado Mesa will have some serious returning firepower as they seek to defend the program's first RMAC regular-season championship since 2000. The Mavericks boast the reigning RMAC Player of the Year in redshirt sophomore forward
Lila Dere, who tied for the league lead with 15 goals, and redshirt junior
Michaela Dangler, who won the program's first RMAC Defensive Player of the Year award as well as RMAC Academic Player of the Year honors.
Megan Remec returns for her third season as CMU head coach after being named the RMAC Coach of the Year for the 2021 season.
The Mavericks open the season on the road at Saint Martin's on August 26. They will play in Grand Junction for the first time the following week as part of the Colorado Mesa Kickoff Weekend, which will see the Mavs battle the University of Nebraska-Kearney on Friday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. (MT) and Cal State Dominguez Hills on Sunday, Sept. 4 at 2 p.m.
