The women’s soccer team started as a powerhouse in Maverick sports, winning a conference championship in three out of their first five seasons.

Last season, they returned to their original excellence when they broke a 20-year drought and brought home their fourth ever Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Championship. This season, with many familiar faces returning, and also some key additions, the sky is the limit.

The Mavericks are returning eight of their 11 starters from last season. Their most notable loss was Lexi Newton, who was an RMAC all-conference player the past two years.

“She was one of our goal scorers and a captain. She had a lot of intangible factors, even outside of her play, so we’ll be looking to fill that role,” Women’s Soccer Head Coach Megan Remec said.

Luckily, Remec secured a large recruiting class of eight freshmen in addition to three transfer players.

Redshirt sophomore Izzy Sorge is a midfielder, with several years of college experience, who transferred from a Division I program at the University of South Dakota. Sophomore defender Kaydree Rapp, who transferred from Rogers State University (RSU) in Oklahoma, also brings a year of college play to an already seasoned team. Sophomore goalkeeper Savannah Harvey also joins Rapp as another RSU transfer. Harvey earned the starting goalkeeper position as a true freshman at RSU.

Defender Michaela Dangler will be returning as one of the team’s captains for her redshirt senior year. Dangler is a two-time All-RMAC player and led a defense that allowed just 0.94 goals against last season.

Dangler’s efforts placed her amidst other Maverick greats as she was honored as the RMAC Defensive Player of the Year, the first player in program history to receive that award.

Redshirt junior Lila Dere is coming off a historic season herself. After being named as the RMAC Freshman of the Year in the COVID-altered spring 2021 season, Dere was voted as the overall RMAC Player of the Year in the fall 2021 season. Dere accounted for 34 points last season, the third most in Maverick history.

Michaela and Lila both grew up in the Grand Valley. They have been playing together since age six, and now take on key leadership roles on their favorite childhood team.

“It’s been really cool to be able to have a teammate who you’ve played with forever. We’ve always tried to train together during the offseason, since we’re both from here. It’s so fun to be able to scroll back and see pictures of us celebrating a goal when we were six and then still doing it now,” Dangler said.

In between the fall seasons, the women’s soccer team plays a spring exhibition schedule against nearby teams like Snow College and Colorado Christian University.

“It is just [about] staying in playing shape and stuff since [the games don’t] mean anything… Coach was trying different people in different spots. It was kind of nice to just take it easy, not having that pressure to perform [and instead] to play for the love of the game,” Dere said.

The players that stayed over the summer continued to practice together during the team-led captain practices. Official check-in and practices began on August 8th. Other than those, the team gets opportunities to further prepare for this upcoming fall season during pre-season exhibition games against outside competition.

“We have a mindset of never ending aspirations. The group is hungry to build off of what they did before, but also look and see like, what else can we achieve and what’s the next step?” Remec said.