#14 Mines (11-2-3, 7-1-2 RMAC) at #4 Colorado Mesa (12-1-1, 7-1-1 RMAC) – Thursday, 6 p.m. – Grand Junction, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]
#14 Mines (11-2-3, 7-1-2 RMAC) at Westminster (5-6-3, 3-4-2 RMAC) – Sunday, 2:30 p.m. –Salt Lake City, Utah [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]

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WRAPPING THINGS UP
The final weekend of the regular season has arrived for the #14 Colorado School of Mines women's soccer team as they'll hit the road for two matches before beginning postseason play, heading first to Grand Junction to take on #4 Colorado Mesa Thursday night in a showdown of ranked opponents before trekking to Salt Lake City Sunday afternoon to take on Westminster.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Both matches this weekend will be streamed free of charge on the RMAC Network and will have live stats through StatBroadcast and SIDEARM.
 
AT THE HELM
Head Coach Kevin Fickes is in his 14th season leading the Mines women's soccer program, already the program's all-time leader in wins at 220-39-38. His .805 career win percentage is currently among the top-10 active NCAA Division II coaches, and on October 6 of last season against Colorado Christian, he became just the second RMAC coach to reach 200 career victories, joining current UCCS boss J.B. Belzer. Entering the 2023 season, Fickes has overseen 27 All-American selections, 13 Academic All-Americans, 69 all-conference honorees, and 21 RMAC major award winners while guiding Mines to six RMAC regular-season titles and nine RMAC Tournament trophies, with 13 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

WEARING THE ARMBAND
The Orediggers have selected a new group of captains for the 2023 season, as Ava Harman, Katie Koehler and Reese McDermott will be wearing the armband this fall. Harman is entering her third season as a starter and scored the first goal of her career in 2022. McDermott was named Third Team All-American to cap off a decorated breakout season in which she was one of the most prolific goal scorers in in the conference, finding the net 15 times as only one of two players with double-digit goals. Koehler, also entering her third season as a starter, was a key piece of a defensive backline last fall that allowed just 0.74 goals and 9.7 shots per match while also scoring four times herself.
 
WEEK 8 REVIEW
Mines took care of business in their final home matches of the regular season, dispatching New Mexico Highlands and Adams State by scores of 5-0 and 3-0. Seven different players found the back of the net on the weekend led by Bella Campos who scored in each match and now has 10 goals on the season to tie for the RMAC lead while Cloey Seltzer and Ellise Putnam each recorded two assists.
 
IN THE POLLS
The latest United Soccer Coaches Poll was released Tuesday and saw Mines climb to #14 this week. RMAC rival Colorado Mesa moved back into the top five in fourth, while held on to a spot in the rankings, dropping back to #25. Week two opponent Dallas Baptist was back up to #22 this week while Seattle Pacific dropped to #24. The RMAC Preseason Poll, announced August 16 also had the Orediggers leading the way, as the RMAC coaches picked Mines to repeat as champions with nine first place votes, followed by UCCS, Regis, Westminster and MSU Denver in the top five.

CLIMBING THE RANKS
Entering her third season as an Oredigger, Reese McDermott has already penned her name into the record books when it comes to career marks in several places; after this weekend, she now stands alone in fourth all-time in both scoring with 31 career goals and points with 73 to her name, passing Nicole LaTourette (2016-19) in the process while also moving into a tie for fourth with the Jennifer Kendall (2015-18) in game-winning goals with 10. She's also fourth all-time in single-season goals with 15, two behind Anna Evans' 17 in 2012. Landry Corbett is knocking on the door for the top five in career assists, as her 16 are two behind Kayla Mitchell (2006-09). When it comes to shutouts, Sadie Wolf now has 14 in her young career and has now passed Sierra Roth (2018-21) for fifth all-time in program history and is now just three behind Sam Zumbro (2013-16) for fourth.
 
WHERE WE STAND
Entering the final few days of regular season play, the RMAC standings are a closely-grouped hard-to-solve mess as some teams have three matches left while others have just two. So let's review where things are as of the time of this article.
 
Mines has two matches left and currently leads the way with 23 points. Colorado Mesa, Regis and UCCS are all tied for second with 22 points, but while Regis also has two matches to go, the Mavericks and Mountain Lions each have three. After the top four, there's a bit of a gap back to fifth where MSU Denver resides with 16 points, followed by CSU Pueblo in sixth with 13 points, Fort Lewis in seventh with 12 and Westminster currently holding the eighth and final postseason spot with 11 points. Western Colorado is currently the first team out with nine points in ninth.
 
Entering play this weekend, the regular season title is still up for grabs and so is seeding for the conference tournament, so it should be an exciting weekend to watch across the board.
 
THE SETUP
Set pieces always present prime scoring opportunities for teams, be it a free kick or a corner kick. But this season, Mines's set piece game has been one of the best in the country. With two more goals off set pieces of the free kick variety on Friday against New Mexico Highlands, the Orediggers have now put the ball in cage off set pieces 15 times in 2023. One would be hard pressed to find another team at any level in the rest of the country with a success rate like that.
 
LEAGUE LEADERS
With the regular season winding down, Mines as a team along with several individuals can be found among the top of the RMAC stat sheet. The Orediggers are the league leaders in goals (46), assists (45) and are second behind only CMU in goals allowed (8).
 
Individually, Reese McDermott leads the conference in shots (66) and shots on goal (31) while ranking fifth in goals (8) and second in assists (7). Bella Campos is tied with Regis' Natalie Bunch for the top spot in the RMAC in scoring with 10 goals and ranks fifth in the conference in both shots (38) and shots on goal (21). Ellise Putnam is top of the class when it comes to assists with nine while Natalie Rouse is tied for seventh in scoring with seven goals. Sadie Wolf's six goals allowed are tied for the second-fewest in the league while her 0.52 GAA is good for third.
 
BALLIN' BELLA
To say Bella Campos is off to a good start in her first season of soccer at the collegiate level could be a candidate for understatement of the year. The freshman out of Highland Village, Texas has appeared in all 16 matches for Mines and made four starts, and after scoring in each match this weekend, remains the team leader in goals with 10 and is now tied for the team lead in points with Reese McDermott with at 23. She scored twice in her debut match against San Francisco state and did so again on September 29 against Black Hills State, while dishing out two assists October 1 against Regis for her first career multi-assist game. So far, she has either scored or assisted on a goal to record a point in 10 matches and is one of the leading candidates at this point for RMAC Freshman of the Year along with Regis' Madeline Gardner. Whoever wins that award might be the one who ends up scoring the most, finishing on the higher-placing team in the standings or both.
 
DISTRIBUTING THE WEALTH
Speaking of assists, there are few better in the country at it than Mines, who currently ranks sixth in all of NCAA Division II with 2.81 assists per game and tied for fourth in total assists with 45 on the year along with Belmont Abbey. Saint Rose leads the way with 51 assists while Catawba and USC Beaufort each have 48. Ellise Putnam, the team leader with nine assists on the season, now ranks tied for sixth in the country in that category. Suffice to say, the Orediggers are really good at playing team soccer, and not having to rely one person have to do all the work to put the ball in the back of the cage.
 
LOOKING AT THE STATS
Two matches remain in the regular season for Mines before they get next Wednesday off and have to watch how things play out elsewhere, but they can feel good about themselves and the work they have done on the stat sheet this season. Bella Campos leads the team with 10 goals and has three assists to go along with it for 23 points. Reese McDermott also has 23 points with eight goals and seven assists but could very easily have at least a dozen more goals to her credit with the number of near-misses she's had this season. Natalie Rouse has scored five times from her center back spot on set pieces, while her fellow back Katie Koehler has four. Landry Corbett heads a trio of player with three goals along with Afton Rasco and Laura Butler while three others have a pair and another three each have a single goal.
 
Ellise Putnam's nine assists lead the team followed closely by McDermott's seven while Ava Harman has six. Corbett and Cloey Seltzer have four each with Koehler and Rasco adding a pair while eight players have a lone tally.
 
All four goalies on the roster have now seen action in 2023 after Allie Lundgren checked in Friday night against NMHU and made two saves and worked a clean 45 minutes of work in the second half in her season debut. Emma Carstens has started once in three matches for 124 minutes with three saves and one goal allowed while Keira Garcia has five saves and allowed one goal in 225 minutes for a 0.40 GAA and .833 save rate. Sadie Wolf has once again been the mainstay this season, starting 13 times in 15 outings for 1,046 minutes and making 15 saves against six goals for a 0.52 GAA and .714 save percentage while posting a 10-2-2 record and six solo shutouts. As a unit, the goalkeeper corps has worked 11 shutouts in 2023.
 
For the year, Mines has outscored teams 46-8 and is averaging 2.88 goals and 23.1 shots per match while allowing 0.50 goals and a mere 6.0 shots to opponents. They have amassed 45 assists on their 46 goals and have a combined 25 saves in goal while attempting 96 corner kicks while allowing just 33 and going 1-1 on PKs this season.
 
SCOUTING COLORADO MESA
The Mavericks' hopes of an unbeaten season came to an end last time out on Sunday when they dropped a 1-0 decision to CSU Pueblo on the road following a 12-0-1 start to the season. Despite the loss of the RMAC Player of the Year from 2022 Lila Dere by way of the transfer portal, Colorado Mesa hasn't missed a beat this season.
 
After Dere scored 23 of the team's 51 goals a season ago, CMU has seen 14 different players find the net a combined 39 times in 2023, led by Sauvelyne Randel with nine goals, four of which have been game-winners. Abby Fotheringham follows with five goals while Kylie Wells has four. Adessa Correa, Mikayla Eccher and Mira Houch all have scored three times while four others have a pair of goals and an additional four Mavericks each have a single tally to their ledgers.
 
In terms of assists, one of those two-goal scorers Haley Klasner leads Colorado Mesa with six followed by Sauvelyne and Fotheringham with three apiece. A trio of players each have two dimes on the season with five others each recording one.
 
In goal, freshman Keely Wieczorek has been the primary keeper and has been well-decorated for her efforts with a handful of RMAC Goalkeeper of the Week awards. She's started all 14 matches for CMU and logged 1,184 minutes and made 31 saves while allowing only six goals for a GAA of 0.46 and a .838 save percentage while posting a 12-1-1 record with six solo shutouts and two combined shutouts. Chloe Dody has appeared three times for 76 minutes in a reserve role and has two saves against four shots faced and has yet to allow a goal.
 
For the year, CMU has outscored teams 39-6 and is averaging 2.79 goals and an even 20 shots per match while allowing just 0.43 goals and 6.2 shots to opponents. They have 23 assists on their 39 goals and have a combined 33 saves in goal while taking 75 corner kicks and allowing only 45. The Mavericks are 4-7 on penalties this season while not allowing any attempts to the opposition.
 
SCOUTING WESTMINSTER
Westminster is looking to regain some momentum this weekend before taking on Mines as they host Black Hills State on Friday. Since a 6-1 win over New Mexico Highlands on September 24, the Griffins are just 1-4-2 but did play UCCS close in a 1-0 loss on Sunday.
 
11 players have scored for WU this season headed by Cassidy Orr with six goals and followed by Necie Gubler with four. Four more Griffins have two goals apiece while another five have scored once. Gubler also happens to lead the team in assists with four while Kim Hendrickson has three and Emma Geiges has two to go along with one goal. An additional four players have one assist each.
 
In goal, it has been a split between Mashaun Estridge and Brighton Jakeman this season. The former has started all nine of her appearances for 733 minutes and made 26 saves against 13 goals allowed for a 1.60 GAA and a .667 save rate, while the latter has made five starts in eight outings, all coming since October 8, and has logged 527 minutes with 18 saves against three goals allowed for a 0.51 GAA and .857 save percentage allowing with three solo shutouts.
 
As a team, Westminster is +7 in goal differential at 23-16 and is averaging 1.64 goals and 15.6 shots per game while allowing 1.14 goals and 8.8 shots to the opposition on average. They have 13 assists on their 23 goals and have combined for 44 saves in goal while taking 56 corner kicks to 53 for their opponents. One item to note if it comes down to it, WU is just 1-4 from the penalty spot this season.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Against Colorado Mesa, Mines is 18-4-1 all-time with a mark of 8-2-1 when playing on the road as they will be this weekend. The Orediggers have won 13 of the last 14 meetings, the only blemish being a 3-1 loss in 2021 in Grand Junction from which Mines rebounded with a 1-0 in win Golden last fall. When looking at the series with Westminster, the history has been short but very favorable toward the Orediggers who are 6-0-2 all time and 3-0-1 when playing on the road. Last season Mins picked up a 1-0 in Golden while the last time they were in the shadow of the great Salt Lake, they had to settle for a 1-1 draw in overtime in 2021.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Up next will be the 2023 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference women's soccer championship. Since the there are still regular season matches to be played next Wednesday while Mines is idle, we'll post an update about when we'll be playing next once the bracket is set.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines women's soccer on Twitter and Instagram at @mineswsoc. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.