GOLDEN, Colo. – The ride continues.

The Colorado Mesa women's soccer program secured its first NCAA Tournament win since 1998, defeating Texas Woman's University 1-0 from the campus of Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo. Sauvelyne Randel scored her 14^th goal of the season in the first half off an assist from Kylie Wells, and the Maverick defense tallied its third consecutive postseason shutout to bring it home.

With the win, Colorado Mesa advances to a rematch of last weekend's RMAC Championship game, as they will play against Mines on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the NCAA Tournament second round. The Mavericks improve to 3-4 all-time as a program in the NCAA Tournament, previously collecting one win apiece in 1997 and 1998. The Mavs also made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2000 and 2011, losing in the first round.

Colorado Mesa improved its record to 17-3-1 and is now tied with those same 1997 and 1998 teams for the most wins in a single season in school history at 17. The Mavs finished 17-4 in 1997 and 17-4-1 in 1998, so a win against Mines this Sunday would set program records for both wins and winning percentage.

Undaunted by a Texas Woman's defense that had allowed only six total goals and four regular-season goals in 2023-24, the Mavericks outshot TWU 22-7, including by a 14-3 margin in the first half. Keely Wieczorek made three saves as CMU kept its 11^th shutout in 21 matches.

The Mavericks peppered the TWU goal early, as Mikayla Eccher tried to extend her early scoring streak with fourth and fifth minute shots and Abby Fotheringham also fired wide in the fifth minute. Texas Woman's got the first shot on goal, however, as Giselle Gutierrez hit a low shot in the sixth minute that Wieczorek saved.

The key stretch for CMU came near the midway point of the first half. Mira Houck forced the first save of the afternoon from TWU goalkeeper Amanda Farris in the 23^rd minute, and the Mavs made a habit of slipping behind the Pioneer defense for a five-minute stretch.

Just seconds later, Carli Dare won back possession and dribbled the ball past the halfway line before slipping a pass to Kylie Wells. Wells came from the left side but ran towards the middle of the field to come onto the pass from Dare and continued on a dribbling run past two Pioneer defenders down the right central part of the field. Wells outran the defenders and hit a hard, low shot that got past a diving Ferris but struck the left post, robbing Wells of an opportunity to score in her fifth straight match.

The ensuing corner kick led to a near miss from Adessa Correa, and Randel hit a 26^th-minute shot that deflected off a defender and wide. Texas Woman's again could not fully clear the corner kick, and after defender Bree McCullough hit a line drive from the top of the 18-yard box into Farris's chest, the Mavericks still had yet to score but seemed on the verge.

The dam broke thanks to Randel in the 28^th minute, with Dare and Wells both integral into the buildup. After Dare, a first-team All-RMAC defender this season, again corralled possession of the ball, she hit the ball up field for Wells, who flicked the ball forward while spinning the opposite direction to beat the defender.

Wells dribbled into the box until her progress was stonewalled by TWU defender Erica Brelove, who made the All-Lone Star Conference Freshman Team this season. Brelove got a foot on the ball to stop Wells's run, but CMU's sophomore forward was able to regain her balance and toe poke the ball centrally to Randel, who was unmarked about eight yards away from goal. Randel took a steadying touch and rocketed the ball from close range into the top of the net, leaving Farris no chance in goal.

Randel's 14 goals this season are seventh on CMU's single-season scoring list, and the redshirt junior from Port-au-Prince, Haiti is one goal away from climbing into what would be a four-way tie for fourth with Lauren Sell (2006), Tiffany Thompson (1997) and Lila Dere (2021) at 15 goals apiece.

Scoring first was always going to be the key against Texas Woman's, which relied on their defense for results and only scored two or more goals twice during their 12-game Lone Star Conference season. The Mavs defense, which kept clean sheets in both CMU's RMAC Tournament semifinal and championship wins, held tough the rest of the way.

Colorado Mesa kept the pressure up offensively, forcing Farris into four second-half saves, but most were fairly comfortable. The most nervous moment from the closing minutes was an 85^th-minute corner kick that Halee Avery got a head on for Texas Woman's, but her shot whizzed to the left of goal.

Only higher seeds have won so far in the South Central region, as fourth-seeded UCCS topped fifth-seeded St. Mary's 2-1 on Thursday, with the Mountain Lions scoring twice in the second half to take the come-from-behind victory. UCCS will face regional No. 1 seed DBU on Saturday before Mesa and Mines play for the third time this season on Sunday afternoon.

Mines has not taken the field since their 3-0 loss to CMU on its home turf in the RMAC Tournament championship game but had recorded 10 consecutive shutouts prior to that match.