SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The title returns to Grand Junction.
Defeating the Westminster Griffins in a tight 1-0 battle of the conference's top defenses, the #20 Colorado Mesa University Women's Soccer Team emerged victorious this evening as they claimed the conference championship for the first time since 2021 and first outright championship since 2000 at Dumke Field.
This is the Mavericks' fifth conference title in program history with them securing that title after having to match or own a better result than Colorado School of Mines this evening who went to on tie 1-1 with CSU Pueblo.
Concluding the regular season, the Mavs went undefeated in conference play as they now own an overall record of 13-2-2 while going 9-0-2 against RMAC opponents and not allowing a single goal against any of them.
Going into the conference tournament, Colorado Mesa will be the No. 1 seed with them getting a first-round bye and this upcoming weekend off before they host the winner of the 4/5 seed game next Wednesday.
They will look to face off with either Fort Lewis College or Regis University in that matchup.
In the tightly contested battle of the RMAC's No. 1 and No. 2 defenses, the Mavs were able to use a second half goal to propel them to victory tonight as they scored in the 50th minute.
Scoring that goal for the Mavs was Kylie Wells with the Senior coming through big by scoring on a long-range shot from about five yards outside of the penalty area.
After receiving a pass from Ellie Duncan, Wells launched the ball to the top right corner of the net with it going just past the outstretched arms of the Griffins' goalkeeper, Marin MacKenzie, who had only allowed four goals all season coming into the game.
Duncan received the assist on the score with her now up to 10 points total this season, second best on the team.
In the end there were a combined 21 shots taken between the two teams with Colorado Mesa holding the advantage at 11-10. The Mavs had four of those shots be on goal while just one for the Griffins was on goal.
Of that lone shot on goal, Keely Wieczorek made the save with her and the defense recording their 14th shutout of the season and not allowing a goal against an opponent since Sept. 20 against Cal State Dominguez Hills.
With the win tonight, Head Coach Jody Lingafeldt also earns her first conference title under her belt in just her second year leading the program. To this point she owns an overall record of 27-4-6, while only having one loss in conference play going 20-1-3.
Information on the RMAC Women's Soccer Championship will be released in the following days with streaming and live stat options available. Tickets for next Wednesday's game can be found online at cmumavericks.com/tickets or through the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference webpage with this being a postseason sponsored event.
