Women’s soccer needs more credit

Colorado Mesa University’s women’s soccer team has come a long way over the last four seasons. Back in 2014, the team finished the season 1-13-4, was winless at Walker Field and was the second worst team in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

Fast forward to 2017. The team currently sits with the fourth best overall record in the conference (6-4), is 8-3 at home over the last two seasons and the team still flies under the radar. This team deserves more credit than they are receiving right now.

Over the team’s last eight games the Mavericks are 6-2 and have outscored their opponents 11-5 over those games. On top of that, the argument can be made that this team could be 7-1 over that stretch following a loss against Regis University last week.

During that game, the Mavericks played toe to toe with one of the top two teams in the conference and didn’t fall behind until a second yellow card, after a highly arguable first, sent Halie Bergeron off the field. While the Mavericks were down a woman that was when Regis was able to find the back of the net. But at full strength, the Rangers were unable to find a good look against the Mavericks.

But this Maverick team continues to impress.

CMU has had four games where they came in clutch, scoring in the 80 minute or later to win the game. Two of those happened in the final minute of play.

They came up with a huge 2-0 victory on Sunday against Metro State University Denver. MSU was the team that beat the Mavericks last season in the first round of the RMAC tournament and effectively ended their season.

Following last season, Head coach Jason Clare made it a point during their training to take higher percentage shots during games. All that training has been paying off for the Mavericks.

The Mavericks have also been more accurate with their shots than in seasons past. Last season only 0.453 percent of CMU’s shots were on goal. This season the Mavericks have increased that to 0.538 percent.

In correlation with the team’s increased accuracy and better shot selection, it has led to an increase in the team’s shot percentage as well. Last season CMU finished with a 0.082 shot percentage. They have increased that to 0.101 this season.

On Sunday the team will be taking on the No. 8 team in the nation: Colorado School of Mines. Mines hasn’t lost since the first game of the season and has since outscored opponents 20-2 over eight games. The team is 7-0-1 during that stretch.

This weekend is going to be the biggest test for the Mavericks to gauge just how good they really are. Look for CMU to play aggressively against the Orediggers and try to pull off the biggest victory of Clare’s tenure with CMU.