Mines vs. MSU Denver, Wednesday, 12 p.m. [Live Stats] [Video]

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POSTSEASON BEGINS
The journey for a third straight RMAC Tournament Championship begins tomorrow as Mines host MSU Denver in the quarterfinal of this year's conference tournament. The fourth-seeded Orediggers host the fifth-seeded Roadrunners at noon from Stermole Soccer Stadium. The winner of the match will head to Grand Junction to take on RMAC Regular Season Champion Colorado Mesa this upcoming Friday at 4 p.m.

The other quarterfinal matchup pits third-seeded UCCS and sixth-seeded Fort Lewis tomorrow at 7 p.m. The winner of that will face #2-seed Regis.

MINES RMAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
As mentioned, Mines has won the past two RMAC Tournament Championships, and will be going for their seventh in all. Since the start of this decade in 2010, the Orediggers are 9-2 in the tournament have claimed four tournament championships.

BREAKOUT FRESHMAN
Trevor Amann, in his first season for the Orediggers, has become one the RMAC's top offensive forces. The freshman from Westminster has a conference second-best 13 goals to go along with a league third-best 29 points. Just this past weekend he posted his second career hat trick against CCU which earned him RMAC Offensive Player of the Week honors. Amann also has a team-best four game winners. 

THE ASSIST MEN
Mines has an impressive four different players with at least four assists this season. Nikolaus Grotz leads the way with a conference second-best nine while Ryan Blarr is seventh in the league with six. Both John Haist and Jackson Shelledy each have four on the season. Those four Orediggers have assisted on 56% of the 41 goals scored this season by Mines. Also, with Grotz' nine assists this season he is one away from tying Tesho Akindele's (2010-13) school record of 33 for a career. 

ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT
Senior Bryce Townsend and junior Ryan Blarr were recently named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 6 squad for their excellence on the pitch and in the classroom. Townsend has 3.57 GPA while Blarr boasts a 3.42 GPA – both in Mechanical Engineering.

THE SERIES
Mine holds a 29-18-5 lead in the all-time series against MSU Denver. The Roadrunners won the regular season matchup, 2-1, after Josh Belfrage nodded in the game winner off a free kick in the 85'. The Orediggers had led earlier in the match off a Trevor Amann goal in the 9'. Belfrage equalized only eight minutes late off a penalty kick.

SCOUTING MSU DENVER
The fifth-seeded Roadrunners (11-6-1, 9-4-1) come into the postseason matchup after having won their last three matches. MSUD shutout all three of Westminster (1-0), Adams State (3-0) and Fort Lewis (2-0) over the last two weeks. They also defeated #2-seed Regis, 3-1, back on October 16. 

Josh Belfrage is far and away the team's top offensive option with 26 points (12g, 2a) on the season. In fact, he is the only MSU Denver player with more than six goals. Hayden Rus has played all 1641:43 minutes this season in goal, and boasts a 1.26 goals against average and a 0.733 save percentage. 


RMAC MEN'S SOCCER TOURNAMENT [Bracket]
Quarterfinals - Wed, Nov. 2
[5] MSU Denver at [4] Mines, 12 p.m.
[6] Fort Lewis at [3] UCCS, 7 p.m.

Semifinals - Fri., Nov. 4 at Colorado Mesa
[1] Colorado Mesa vs. Mines/MSUD winner, 4 p.m.
[2] Regis vs. UCCS/FLC winner, 7 p.m.

Final - Sunday, Nov. 6 at Colorado Mesa
Semifinal winners, 1 p.m.