For the first time since 1998, the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) women’s soccer has won the RMAC postseason tournament, officially punching their ticket to the NCAA tournament. After losing to the Colorado School of Mines (Mines) 4-0 late in the regular season, the Mavericks responded in big fashion, beating them 3-0 to win the RMAC.
“I think the team is incredibly resilient. I think they’ve grown a ton over the course of the year. They really believed, and bought into what they could do today, and I think this is a result of a perfect game.” head coach Megan Remec said.
A few weeks ago, At 11-0-1 and ranked 4th in the country, the team was cruising and looking like one of the countries best. After a big win against the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, who went on to win the RMAC regular season championship, the Mavericks then lost three straight.
In the last match of their road trip, they lost their first game of the season to Colorado State University-Pueblo 1-0. They then returned home and lost a pair of huge matchups against Mines and Regis University, who finished second and third respectively in the conference.
Against Mines, it was the first game all season CMU was outplayed with the 4-0 loss, and then lost to Regis 1-0 in the following game.
Seeing their national rank drop to 18th, CMU defeated Westminster University on the last game of the season to finish fourth in the RMAC, and have what was thought to be one home playoff game, a matchup against Metropolitan State University-Denver (MSU-D) .
The Mavs then turned the postseason switch to get back to their dominant ways. CMU went on to beat MSU-D being up as much as 3-0, and then advancing to the conference semifinals with a 3-2 win. More importantly UCCS was upset by Westmister, giving the Mavs another home game in the RMAC semifinals.
Once again, the Mavericks got out to another fast start, scoring two goals in the first 11 minutes, and holding on for the comfortable 3-0 win.
Then, for the third game in a row, CMU came out the gates on fire. CMU scored fast, thanks to two goals from midfielder Mikayla Eccher, one in the 2nd minute and the other in the 24th en route to winning tournament MVP, scoring three goals the last two games. Forward Kylie Wells then scored a goal early in the second half to push the lead 3-0.
“It’s just I’ve been dreaming of this for five years, and it finally happened. I’m so proud of this team and how hard we worked this year to get here,” Eccher said.
Playing in the blinding sun in the second half, goalie Keely Wieczorek made three saves in the second half, with help from the stout CMU backline to preserve the 3-0 shutout win
The Mavericks will now head to the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 2011, likely as the #3 seed in the south-central region.
