GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Still unbeaten in the RMAC, Colorado Mesa men's soccer has been holding its own in a tightly-contested conference race. At 4-0-4 in the RMAC, the Mavericks sit on 16 points and are simultaneously one point behind first but just four points ahead of seventh place.

The No. 17 Mavs end the regular season with two matches at home, facing Adams State (0-14, 0-8) Friday for Senior Day and closing with a potentially titanic showdown with the current conference leaders, No. 23 Fort Lewis. Numerous tiebreakers may yet need to come into play, but the possibility is there that if the Mavericks go 2-0 at home this weekend, they could be celebrating an RMAC regular season title on Sunday afternoon.

Friday's game against Adams State will be at 7 p.m., with Senior Day festivities approximately a half-hour before kickoff. Sunday's game against Fort Lewis will be a noon kickoff, matching every other RMAC regular season finale, and will be immediately followed by a 2:30 women's kickoff.

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa picked up two vital away points against two teams that were picked in the conference's top three in preseason. The Mavericks gave up a first-half lead to tie UCCS 3-3 last Thursday before battling then-No. 5 CSU Pueblo, the defending national runners-up, to a scoreless draw last Sunday.

RECAPS: UCCS | CSU Pueblo

Matheus Lazzuri, Manuel Ponce Casas and Joey Joiner found the net in the 3-3 draw with UCCS, as the Mavericks led 3-1 at halftime but were unable to hold the lead. The Mavs held on for the 0-0 draw with Pueblo despite being outshot 19-6 and being held without a shot as a team in the second half. Diego Chavez made four saves in each game for CMU.

Standings Check
Heading into the final two match days of the RMAC regular season, the leaders are tightly bunched up, with everything from a No. 1 seed to missing the tournament entirely on the table for several teams. The top six teams from the 11-team RMAC will qualify for the RMAC Tournament. Incredibly, with two games to go, not a single team has clinched a tournament spot yet.
 

Team	Record	Pts
#23 Fort Lewis	5-1-2	17
#6 CSU Pueblo	5-2-1	16
#17 Colorado Mesa	4-0-4	16
Westminster	4-2-2	14
Colorado School of Mines	4-3-2	14
MSU Denver	4-3-2	14
UCCS	3-2-3	12

 
The Mavericks face winless Adams State before a Sunday matchup with a Fort Lewis team currently leading the conference. Pueblo plays at Regis (3-4-1) Thursday and at South Dakota Mines (1-7) Sunday.

Colorado School of Mines and MSU Denver each only have one game remaining, with MSU Denver hosting Colorado Christian on Friday and Mines hosting the Cougars on Sunday. Mines and MSU Denver played one another to a 2-2 draw on Wednesday that put both teams at 14 points alongside Westminster, who closes at home vs. Fort Lewis on Friday and Adams State on Sunday.

For any teams that end the season level in points, the first tiebreaker is head-to-head results. Colorado Mesa has tied with CSU Pueblo, Westminster and UCCS and beaten Mines and MSU Denver. The second tiebreaker is conference season goal differential, with a cap of three goals per game.

Senior Day
Friday's match against Adams State will also be Senior Day. The Mavericks will honor 12 players during the ceremony – Felipe Busellini, Diego Chavez, Lluis Fabregat, Alec Fronapfel, Raymond Jackson, Joey Joiner, Stevie Koon, Moises Martinez, Carlos Melendez, Leo Mireles, David Peters and John Roberts.

The outgoing class features this year's captain (Jackson), starting goalkeeper (Chavez), a player ranking second all-time in program history in goals (Fronapfel, with 28) and a former RMAC Summit Award winner (Peters).

Ten of the 12 seniors were on the 2021 roster that won the RMAC Tournament for the third time in school history and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in school history. Fronapfel scored in the penalty kick shootout during CMU's first-round NCAA win over Colorado School of Mines.

The outgoing class has combined for five All-RMAC selections, three CoSIDA Academic All-District picks, six RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll selections, two RMAC All-Academic First Team honors, two RMAC All-Tournament team awards and an RMAC Tournament MVP.

Legacy Leaderboards
Several Mavericks are making an imprint on the program record books, either in this season alone or over the course of their careers.

Redshirt senior forward Alec Fronapfel ranks second all-time in program history with 28 goals. He trails No. 1 on CMU's all-time list by a considerable margin (Roy Abergil with 49 from 2013-16) but passed Moshe Perez (2015-17) for sole possession of second place with his first goal of the 2023 season back on September 14.

Fronapfel ranks fourth in program history in total points, the same slot he started the season in. Fronapfel's 28 career goals and four career assists gives him 60 points, six behind Perez for third (66) and eight behind Kevin Del Mazo (2015-18) for second (68). While Abergil's all-time mark of 103 seems again out of reach for Fronapfel, a significant points-scoring run this weekend and/or through the postseason could place Fronapfel in second on that list as well by season's end.

Fronapfel has a shot at another program record depending on how far the Mavericks go in the postseason. Fronapfel has played in 76 career games entering this weekend. That total is only 12^th in program history right now, but Del Mazo's record of 82 is within reach if the Mavs go on a playoff run. With two regular season games remaining, Colorado Mesa would need to play five additional games between the RMAC and NCAA Tournaments to enable Fronapfel to break the CMU games played record.

More Mavs than just Fronapfel are climbing the all-time ranks, however. With seven goals so far this season, Fernando Morales now has 20 for his career and ranks tied for fourth all-time with Del Mazo behind the top three of Abergil, Fronapfel and Perez. Morales also ranks fifth in program history with his 43 career points (20 goals and three assists).

Joey Joiner has 11 goals and 12 assists in his career, ranking ninth all-time with 33 career points. Joiner is one of only four players in CMU history with more than 10 goals and more than 10 assists. Manuel Ponce Casas is eighth all-time with 13 goals and 10^th all-time with 33 points, impressive numbers for a player who is still a sophomore. Ponce Casas is also tied for the third-most game-winning goals in a single season with five, joining Fronapfel in 2021 and Abergil in 2015.

Diego Chavez is in the top five for single-season numbers with his 72 saves. Chavez passed Connor Durant's 2021 season to get into the top five with four saves against No. 5 CSU Pueblo. Chavez's .809 save percentage is currently on pace to be the sixth-best single-season number in program history.

Unbeaten Streak
Colorado Mesa is 8-0-5 in its last 13 matches since suffering a pair of 1-0 losses to nationally ranked opponents Midwestern State and Northwest Nazarene. The streak has included five clean sheets, five multi-goal victories and five games in which the Mavs recorded a win or tie despite conceding the first goal.

The 13-game streak is currently the second-longest in program history, passing two 12-game streaks from the 2014 and 2018 seasons with the two results this past week. The Mavs had a 16-game unbeaten streak in 2016.

Eight of CMU's 13 games during this streak have been RMAC games, and at 4-0-4, the Mavericks are the only unbeaten team remaining in the RMAC. Colorado Mesa has gone unbeaten through the RMAC season just twice in program history and only once during a full season.

CMU went 12-0-2 in the RMAC during the 2016 campaign that featured the 16-game unbeaten streak under former coach Todd Padgett, which was the last time that CMU won an outright RMAC regular season title. The Mavs went 5-0-1 in conference during the COVID-shortened spring 2021 season that was head coach Jon Fridal's first in charge.

Flipped Script
A big reason for Colorado Mesa's ability to generate a string of results is their resilience as a club in the second half of matches.

Entering last week's game against UCCS, the Mavericks are outscoring opponents 28-14 this season overall, but throttling them by an 18-7 margin in the second half. The most notable example was the Mavericks coming back from a three-goal halftime deficit to tie Regis 3-3 in the early stages of the RMAC season.

That history is what made Friday's match against UCCS so surprising, as it was the Mountain Lions who came back from two goals down at halftime to earn the draw. It was only the third match out of the 16 CMU has played this season in which the Mavericks were outscored as a team in the second half, and the first since the opening two matches of the year against Texas A&M International and Midwestern State. It was also the first match in 2023 that the Mavericks have failed to win after being ahead by multiple goals at any point.

Regional Rankings
The NCAA released the first edition of its regional rankings this week, an alphabetical listing of teams it considers to be under consideration for selection to the NCAA Tournament, and Colorado Mesa made the cut.

For men's soccer, 40 teams qualify for the NCAA Tournament and are split up into four 10-team Super Regions. The Mavericks will strive to be one of the top 10 teams in Super Region 4, which is comprised of the RMAC, Lone Star Conference, Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC), California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) and the Pacific West (PacWest) Conference.

In the preliminary regional rankings, the NCAA ranked 12 teams in each region in alphabetical order. Starting next week, the NCAA will numerically rank teams in each region 1-12 every week as a precursor to the official bracket.

There were three RMAC teams among the NCAA's opening 12-team alphabetical listing – CMU, CSU Pueblo and UCCS. Fort Lewis, who currently leads the RMAC by a point and is ranked No. 23 in the most recent United Soccer Coaches poll, was not included. The United Soccer Coaches national poll and regional rankings have no impact on the NCAA's selections and rankings.

The other times to be included were Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal State LA and Chico State from the CCAA, Midwestern State and St. Mary's from the Lone Star, Point Loma from the PacWest and Simon Fraser and Western Oregon from the GNAC.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa reached a season-high with a No. 17 national ranking in the latest United Soccer Coaches national poll. The Mavs are one of three ranked RMAC teams alongside No. 6 CSU Pueblo, who the Mavs tied last Sunday, and No. 23 Fort Lewis, who will come to Grand Junction this upcoming Sunday. The Skyhawks are in the Coaches Poll national rankings for the first time this season.

The Mavs are ranked third in the United Soccer Coaches regional rankings, the second straight week CMU has held that spot. The Mavericks trail Midwestern State (national No. 2) and CSU Pueblo (national No. 6) and lead Fort Lewis and St. Mary's in the top five.

Colorado Mesa was picked to finish fourth in the preseason Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coaches Poll, garnering 64 total points.

CSU Pueblo finished atop the poll with 97 points and seven of 11 first-place votes. Colorado School of Mines received 86 points and two first-place votes after winning the RMAC regular season and tournament titles last year, with UCCS just behind with 83 points and one first-place vote. Regis garnered the final first-place vote, but still finished just behind the Mavericks in fifth with 62 total points.

About Adams State
The Adams State Grizzlies have struggled thus far in 2023, as they are still searching for their first point. The Grizzlies are 0-14 overall and 0-8 in the RMAC. They have been outscored 31-3 in the RMAC this season, including 20-0 over their last four matches. ASU's most competitive matches were 1-0 nonconference losses to Lubbock Christian and Oklahoma Panhandle State and a 2-1 loss to South Dakota Mines.

Senior Ranulfo Lopez leads the way offensively with three of the team's six goals. Lopez scored in three straight matches from September 22-27. Emmanuel Kolleh, Jon Marc Messersmith and Kaidin Reese all have one goal apiece, with Reese scoring the Grizzlies' most recent goal at South Dakota Mines on October 8. Lopez (20) and Reese (10) are the only Grizzlies with 10 or more shots this season.

Sophomore goalkeeper Charles Manthe has started 10 matches and made 59 saves against 36 goals conceded. Senior Zach Carr has made four starts, including ASU's most recent match against Colorado School of Mines, and has made 26 saves against 14 goals allowed.

Head Coach Justin Gilfert is in his second season at Adams State. The Grizzlies went 1-15-2 in Gilfert's first season, going 1-8-1 in the RMAC. Prior to Adams, Gilfert coached at Southwest Virginia Community College and served as an assistant at Emory and Henry, Tennessee Southern and Pfeiffer University.

Colorado Mesa has never lost to Adams State, going 16-0-2 all-time against the Grizzlies. The Mavericks have won 14 meetings in a row, with ASU's two ties coming back in 2009 and 2011. Current head coach Jon Fridal is 2-0 against Adams State, winning by a program-record margin of 9-0 in 2021 and 5-0 in 2022.

About Fort Lewis
Picked ninth in the preseason poll, No. 23 Fort Lewis is leading the RMAC entering the final week of the season, but the race is so tight that the Skyhawks have yet to even clinch a top-six spot to reach the RMAC Tournament. The Skyhawks were also not named among the NCAA's initial 12-team list of teams under consideration for the NCAA Tournament.

Fort Lewis is 9-3-3 overall and 5-1-2 in the RMAC. Their 17 points lead CSU Pueblo and Colorado Mesa by one point and the trio of Westminster, MSU Denver and Mines by three points. Fort Lewis plays at Westminster on Friday.

The Skyhawks played alongside CMU during the Mavericks' trip to Canada earlier this season. On that trip, FLC lost to Simon Fraser 1-0 and tied MSUB 1-1 (the Mavericks won both games). Fort Lewis has been on fire since starting RMAC play however, beating then-No. 5 CSU Pueblo and defending conference champions Mines head-to-head in the same week. The Skyhawks have only lost to UCCS and tied MSU Denver and Colorado Christian.

Fort Lewis has an elite scorer in junior Gabriel Legendre, who ranks second in the RMAC with 10 goals and leads the conference with 27 shots on goal. Sophomore Anton Hjalmarsson is having a well-rounded campaign, ranking tied for third in the RMAC in goals (eight), second in assists (eight) and second in points (24). Junior Tomas Duenes has six goals and six assists, giving the Skyhawks a balanced scoring attack. The Skyhawks lead the RMAC with 38 total goals scored.

While FLC is no slouch defensively, their defense is not as elite as their offense. The Skyhawks have allowed 20 goals this season, placing them sixth in the 11-team RMAC in scoring defense. Freshman Lucas Martin has emerged as the team's top goalkeeper, playing in 14 of 15 games and making 47 saves against 17 goals conceded. Martin ranks fifth in the conference in goals-against average (1.21) and seventh in save percentage (.734).

David Oberholtzer is in his 8^th season as the head coach at Fort Lewis. He compiled a 56-48-15 record over his first seven seasons. The Skyhawks have qualified for the RMAC Tournament in four of Oberholtzer's seven previous seasons in charge. A former Fort Lewis player and assistant coach, Oberholtzer also spent time as an assistant at the University of Dayton (DI) from 2013-15.

The Mavericks are 8-14-5 all-time against a Fort Lewis program with an impressive legacy. The Skyhawks won national championships in 2005, 2009 and 2011 and have reached the national championship game two other times. The Mavs were winless in their first 11 games against Fort Lewis and notched their first win over the Skyhawks in 2012, the year after FLC's most recent national championship. The Mavs had a run of dominance, going 7-0-2 from 2012-2018, but the series has tipped FLC's way again in recent years. The Skyhawks have won three of the last four against CMU, including a 2-1 win in Durango last season.

Coach's Corner
Mavericks head coach Jon Fridal begins his fourth season at Colorado Mesa in 2023. He has already earned conference and regional coaching honors and taken the Mavericks to national success.

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. That led to a top-10 national preseason ranking for the team entering the 2022 season.

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