GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Continuing a historic season that has so far set new program records for longest unbeaten streak and highest national ranking, the 2023 Colorado Mesa women's soccer team padded its resume by placing six players on the RMAC's All-Conference teams, including three on the 13-player first team.

Forward Sauvelyne Randel, midfielder Abby Fotheringham and defender Carli Dare each earned First Team All-RMAC distinction, a career first for all three. Forward Kylie Wells and defender Ally Wachtel were each placed on the second team while freshman Keely Wieczorek punctuated a strong debut season with an All-RMAC honorable mention.

It is the first All-RMAC recognition of any kind for Fotheringham, Dare, Wells and Wieczorek. Randel previously had a second-team selection last season while Wachtel was honorable mention in 2022.

The three first-team selections are another first in program history. CMU placed four players each on the first team back in 1997 and 1999, but since then had not had more than two in a single season. This year, UCCS and Colorado School of Mines had four picks apiece on the first team alongside CMU's three while Regis and Westminster had one first-teamer each.

Randel earns first-team honors as she currently ranks second in the RMAC with 11 goals and third with 26 points. Randel leads the conference with 1.53 points per game and five game-winning goals. The redshirt junior from Port-au-Prince, Haiti embraced an expanded role filling in for last year's national leading scorer Lila Dere and got off to a hot start with six goals in the team's first five matches. Randel had two-goal games against both Angelo State and Westminster this season. She has been ruthlessly efficient with her chances, tallying those 11 goals on just 24 shots on target. Randel was named the RMAC Offensive Player of the Week on September 19.

Fotheringham had an excellent debut season with the Mavs after previous stops at Snow College and Utah State. The junior from Layton, Utah has five goals and three assists for the Mavericks and three game-winning goals. Fotheringham engineered perhaps the moment of the year to this point when her 88^th-minute header clinched a dramatic 2-1 win over UCCS, the eventual RMAC regular season champions, in a nationally ranked showdown on the road. Fotheringham ranks tied for third in the RMAC with 46 shots.

Dare stood out on a Mavericks back line that was airtight throughout the season, allowing just four goals through the season's first 12 matches and 12 goals overall. The redshirt sophomore and Fruita native was one of two Maverick players to start all 17 matches for CMU this season and ranks fourth on the team with 1,182 minutes played. Offensively, Dare found the net during a September 22 match at New Mexico Highlands, but usually her impact was between the lines of the box score, constantly winning back possession for the Mavs and keeping some of the RMAC's most talented attackers at bay.

From one Fruita Monument graduate to another, Kylie Wells earns her first all-conference nod after a stellar sophomore season. Wells came alive during the second half of the year in the conference portion of the schedule, tallying all five goals and two assists this year against RMAC opponents. Wells was a persistent attacking threat, ranking fifth in the RMAC with 45 shots. Wells had a five-point game with two goals and an assist against Western Colorado and had a goal and an assist against Westminster to help CMU secure a first-round home playoff game. Wells grabbed an RMAC Offensive Player of the Week award on October 17 of this year.

Ally Wachtel is another fixture in the dominant CMU back line. The sophomore from Tempe, Arizona leads all CMU outfield players with 1,330 minutes played. Wachtel, who was honorable mention All-RMAC last season alongside center back partner Kaydree Rapp, was a stabilizing force for the Mavs defensive unit as Colorado Mesa started a freshman goalkeeper and lost Rapp for much of the season due to injuries. Led by Wachtel, the Maverick back line held opponents to five shots or fewer six teams this season, including limiting Black Hills State and New Mexico Highlands to just one shot each.

Keely Wieczorek burst onto the scene as a true freshman, seized the CMU starting job and won the first two RMAC Goalkeeper of the Week awards of the season. Hailing from Camas, Washington, Wieczorek has started all 17 matches in goal for the Mavericks and ranks fourth in the conference with a 0.74 goals-against average and seventh with a .782 save percentage. Wieczorek and the CMU defense have recorded eight shutouts this season. The freshman has three total RMAC Goalkeeper of the Week awards to her credit and only needed a season to take over the program record for most weekly award wins by a goalkeeper.

Colorado School of Mines junior Reese McDermott was named the RMAC Player of the Year, one of three individual award winners for the Orediggers. Mines redshirt sophomore Natalie Rouse took home RMAC Defensive Player of the Year honors while Bella Campos, who leads the RMAC with 12 goals, took home RMAC Freshman of the Year honors for Mines.

UCCS Head Coach J.B. Belzer won RMAC Coach of the Year honors after leading the Mountain Lions to a regular-season RMAC title. UCCS also has the conference's Goalkeeper of the Year in graduate student Isabella Whitmore.

The Mavericks are ranked No. 18 nationally and have the No. 4 seed in the RMAC Tournament. They will host fifth-seeded MSU Denver in an RMAC Tournament quarterfinal on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Grand Junction. If the Mavericks win, they will face the winner of top-seeded UCCS and eighth-seeded Westminster in a semifinal on Wednesday, with a potential RMAC Championship match next Sunday, November 12.