GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Maverick women's soccer program snapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over Westminster to close regular season play. That win clinched the No. 4 seed for the Mavericks, enabling them to host a quarterfinal matchup against fifth-seeded MSU Denver in Grand Junction.
The Mavs and Roadrunners will play this Sunday alongside the other three RMAC Tournament quarterfinal matchups. CMU is scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m., immediately following an RMAC semifinal between the Maverick men's team and CSU Pueblo, which starts at noon.
Under a new policy enacted by the RMAC, conference tournament games are now on a pay-per-view model. The game can also be followed via live stats and tickets remain available.
A Note From the RMAC
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference has announced the addition of a subscription model to all 2023-24 RMAC championship broadcasts on the RMAC Network, the league announced Wednesday. The announcement comes after support from league leadership in the summer to implement the pay-per-view concept as a manner to offset the league's broadcasting initiatives and operations associated with championship events.
Among the RMAC fall championship sports within the subscription model are all three rounds of tournament play for men's soccer, women's soccer and volleyball. Winter sports with championship events within the league's subscription model are men's basketball, women's basketball, women's wrestling, indoor track and field and swimming and diving. Men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, baseball, softball and outdoor track and field round out the subscription events for the 2023-24 academic year.
Fans will be able to purchase day passes for each day of tournament play, priced at $9.95 per day. To purchase the day pass, fans will navigate to
www.rmacnetwork.com and will be directed to select the institution that they are supporting through their viewership. Once the payment submission is complete, fans will have access to any RMAC championship contest available for that specific sport. Day passes will expire within 24 hours of the purchase.
For technical support questions, fans may submit a support ticket with
Hudl Support or email the RMAC directly (
help@rmacsports.org).
For further support, fans can visit the RMAC Network Help page.
Looking Back
Colorado Mesa closed the regular season with a 3-1 win, topping travel partners Westminster in a midweek game.y
RECAP:
Westminster
Sauvelyne Randel scored twice to take her up to 11 goals on the season and added an assist along with
Adessa Correa on
Kylie Wells's goal to put the game away. The win was the 13
th of the season for the Mavericks, giving the 2023 team the fifth-highest total in school history so far.
Roadrunner Revenge
The opening round of the RMAC Tournament will grant Colorado Mesa a rematch with the team that broke CMU's nine-game winning streak to open the season.
The Mavericks and MSU Denver played to a 1-1 tie back on October 8. The Roadrunners were just the second team in the season's first 10 games to score first against the Mavericks, only five teams have done so all season.
The Mavs ran into a red-hot goalkeeper in MSU Denver's Kylie Bach. The junior from Thornton, Colorado made exactly 10 saves in three consecutive matches from October 1-8: a 1-0 loss to UCCS, a 1-0 win over Westminster and the 1-1 tie with Colorado Mesa. Bach racked up eight or more saves a total of five times this season, and ranks second in the conference in total saves (84) and fourth in save percentage (.824).
The 11 shots taken by MSU Denver towards the Colorado Mesa goal are the fourth-most by a CMU opponent this season. Mavericks goalkeeper
Keely Wieczorek set a career high with five saves in the initial meeting against MSU Denver, a total she has since equaled twice.
Kylie Wells scored her first goal of the season against the Roadrunners, and it served to open the floodgates for the sophomore forward. After going without a point in her first nine matches, Wells has five goals and three assists over the past eight matches, starting with the MSU Denver content. Wells now ranks fifth in the RMAC in shots (45), with her single game-high of six coming against the Roadrunners.
Mavs head coach
Megan Remec is a former MSU Denver assistant coach. Remec was with the Roadrunners for two stints from 2013-16 and again in 2019 before departing for CMU. While Remec didn't coach alongside any of MSU Denver's current staff members, Roadrunners assistant coach Makenna Brassard played for MSU Denver while Remec was on staff there.
Standings Update
Colorado Mesa finished fourth out of 13 RMAC teams in the conference standings, still outperforming their preseason projection of sixth. The regular season championship came down to the final match of the season, with UCCS beating CSU Pueblo to leapfrog an idle Colorado School of Mines on the season's final day.
Here is how the top of the standings finished. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a tie, and teams that qualified for the RMAC Tournament are marked with an asterisk (*). Teams with a number in front of them (#18) signifies their United Soccer Coaches national ranking or if they are receiving votes in the top 25 national poll.
| Team |
RMAC Record |
Pts |
| *(RV) UCCS |
10-1-1 |
31 |
| *#7 Colorado School of Mines |
9-1-2 |
29 |
| *(RV) Regis |
9-2-1 |
28 |
| *#18 Colorado Mesa |
8-3-1 |
25 |
| *MSU Denver |
6-3-3 |
21 |
| *CSU Pueblo |
5-3-4 |
19 |
| *Fort Lewis |
5-3-4 |
19 |
| *Westminster |
4-6-2 |
14 |
| Western Colorado |
4-7-1 |
13 |
CSU Pueblo won the tiebreaker for the No. 6 seed over Fort Lewis with a higher goal differential in conference play (+7 for CSU Pueblo over +6 for Fort Lewis).
Tournament Schedule
The other three RMAC quarterfinal matchups – No. 1 UCCS vs. No. 8 Westminster, No. 2 Mines vs. No. 7 Fort Lewis and No. 3 Regis vs. No. 6 CSU Pueblo – kick off at 1 p.m. while the CMU/MSU Denver match will start at 3 p.m.
For advancing teams, the semifinals will be on Wednesday and the championship match will be on either Saturday, Nov. 11 or Sunday, Nov. 12. All games will be played with the higher seed as the home team.
While CMU faces the only team it tied against during the season in MSU Denver in the first round, the Mavericks won't have the opportunity to avenge a loss until a potential RMAC Tournament final. The three teams to beat the Mavs this season – Colorado School of Mines, Regis and CSU Pueblo – are all on the opposite side of the tournament bracket.
Should the Mavs win their first-round game, they will play the winner of top-seeded UCCS and eighth-seeded Westminster. Colorado Mesa beat both of those teams during the regular season and is, to date, the only RMAC team to beat UCCS in 2023.,
Regional Rankings
The NCAA released its second edition of the regional rankings, a preview of what the NCAA tournament selections would be if the season ended today. Last week, the NCAA listed the teams under consideration alphabetically, but this week's rankings had the teams numerically ranked for the first team.
The NCAA Women's Soccer national tournament is broken down into eight regions. Six teams qualify from the South Central region, consisting of the RMAC and the Lone Star Conference. Eight teams are ranked in the regional rankings to show which teams would be in and which teams are the first couple of teams out.
Colorado Mesa is currently No. 5 in the NCAA's South Central regional rankings. The Mavs trail Dallas Baptist, Colorado School of Mines, Texas Woman's and UCCS. Behind CMU on the list is St. Mary's in sixth, Texas A&M International in seventh and Regis in eighth.
The Mavericks have a potential showdown with UCCS awaiting in the RMAC Tournament semifinal. The Mavs did not face any of the four ranked Lone Star teams during nonconference play this season but are a combined 1-2 against the three other ranked RMAC schools.
The regional rankings will be updated every Wednesday prior to the NCAA Tournament selection show.
All-Conference Teams
Keep an eye out prior to kickoff, as the RMAC is slated to reveal their all-conference teams and individual award winners on Sunday morning before the start of the RMAC Tournament quarterfinal round.
All-conference teams are voted on by the league's head coaches and consist of a first team and second team of four forwards, four midfielders, four defenders and a goalie apiece. Special awards include RMAC Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Coach of the Year.
About MSU Denver
The Roadrunners of MSU Denver are 7-5-6 overall with a 6-3-3 RMAC record, finishing fifth in the conference standings with a total of 21 points. MSU Denver leapt into fifth on the final day of the season by beating Colorado Christian 1-0 while CSU Pueblo lost.
MSU Denver has interesting home and road splits. The Roadrunners are 5-4 with no ties at home this year, but 2-1-6 when playing on the road. One of those six ties came at Community Hospital Unity Field against the Mavericks, who were ranked No. 4 in the country at the time. Of course, ties don't exist in the playoffs, so if the teams are even after 90 minutes there will be two short overtime periods followed by penalty kicks if no team scores.
MSU Denver is 3-1-2 since the first meeting with Colorado Mesa. The Roadrunners lost 4-0 to Colorado School of Mines and tied Fort Lewis and Western Colorado, but beat New Mexico Highlands, Adams State and Colorado Christian. MSU Denver's other two RMAC losses are to UCCS and Regis.
The Roadrunners have a trio of players with 10 points, including Brooklyn Gold (three goals, four assists), who found the net against CMU earlier this season. Junior forward Tessa Killmon is tied for the team lead with four goals (and two assists) while senior forward Kailey Maness is tied for fourth in the RMAC with six assists (and has two goals). Freshman Monica Yoder has been a standout, also scoring four goals and adding one assist for nine points.
Kylie Bach has been a standout in goal for the Roadrunners, making 84 saves against 18 goals conceded in 17 matches. Bach has made a career-high 10 saves in three separate games this season, including against the Mavericks back in October.
Kat Mertz has been the head coach of the MSU Denver program since 2021 but brings loads of Division I experience. Mertz has previously been a head coach at UNLV (2005-09), Saint Louis (2012) and Oregon (2013-19), and has assistant coaching experience at UCLA (2000-04), Texas (2010-11) and Oklahoma (2020-21). She had an all-time record of 102-122-36 as a Division I head coach prior to arriving in Denver. With the Roadrunners, Mertz has made her third RMAC Tournament in as many season and is 1-2 in the RMAC Tournament.
Colorado Mesa trails in the all-time series with MSU Denver, compiling a 17-28-2 record against the Roadrunners. Current head coaches
Megan Remec and Kat Mertz are 1-1-1 against one another. The last postseason meeting between the two schools was a 1-0 overtime home loss for CMU in the first round of the RMAC Tournament back in 2016. In that matchup, CMU was also the No. 4 seed while MSU Denver was the No. 5 seed.
