#6 Mines (2-0-0) vs. Lubbock Christian (1-0-1) – Thursday, 7:30 p.m. – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]
#6 Mines (2-0-0) vs. West Texas A&M (1-0-0) – Sunday, 12 p.m. – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]

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HEADED BACK HOME
After starting off the season with a pair of wins out in California on opening weekend, the #6 Colorado School of Mines women's soccer team will take the pitch at Stermole Stadium for the first time in 2024 this week when they welcome two teams from the Lone Star State to town, first facing Lubbock Christian as part of a twin bill with the men's team Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. before hosting West Texas A&M Sunday afternoon in a 12 p.m. kickoff.
 
FAN INFORMATION
Tickets can be purchased online in advance at minesathletics.com/tickets or at the gate on the day of the match. Mines students, faculty and staff will be admitted for free with their BlasterCard. Fans are encouraged to park in Lot K immediately to the north of Stermole Stadium. Fans as are not allowed to park in the neighborhood surrounding the Clear Creek Athletic Complex, as the City of Golden's street parking requires a permit seven days a week.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Both matches this weekend will be streamed free of charge on the RMAC Network. Free live stats will be available through Sidearm for both matches. Links for video and stats for both matches can be found on minesathletics.com.

BLASTER'S BASKET
Admissions to Thursday's match against Lubbock Christian will be free, but fans are encouraged to bring a donation item or consider a cash donation to Blaster's Basket. Blaster's Basket is the food pantry on campus that provides non-perishable food, toiletries and basic school supplies to Orediggers in need.
 
WEEK 1 RECAP
It was a successful opening weekend out west for the Orediggers to kick off the 20th season of women's soccer at Mines, posting a 1-0 win over San Francisco State on opening day before rallying for a 2-1 win over Chico State on Sunday.
 
Friday Reese McDermott teamed up with Cloey Seltzer to find the net in the 67th minute for the only goal of the game while Sadie Wolf and the defense orchestrated a lockdown effort that yielded just two shots to the Gators.
 
In the second match of the weekend, the Wildcats got on the board first with a set piece goal off a header from a corner kick in the 16th minute, but with just two seconds left before the intermission, Mines came back with a set piece goal off their own off a corner kick, as Natalie Rouse picked up right where she left off in 2023 heading home a ball from the best setup artist in the league on set pieces Ava Harman to draw even at 1-1. Then in the 79th minute, Harman recorded her third game-winning score in the last two seasons, tucking a shot inside the left post on a beautiful cross from Bella Campos to secure a 2-1 win.
 
RULES RESET
It wasn't too long ago that the NCAA implemented new changes to the soccer rules with the last set of changes coming in 2022. Now in 2024, there's been more tweaks to the rulebook, including at least a partial revision of one of the 2022 changes. First up is an adjustment to the substitution rules in the second half and overtime, when applicable. To avoid clock manipulation by teams that are ahead or teams that are tied late in a match, all substitutions within the final 15 minutes of regulation and any made during overtime will result in the clock being stopped. The second change affects overtime during the postseason, as sudden victory (otherwise known as the "Golden Goal") has been reinstated. In addition, video review has been expanded to review all penalty kick situations, all straight red cards events, denial of obvious goal-scoring opportunity situations and any potential offside violations in goal-scoring situations.
 
AT THE HELM
2024 marks the 15th season leading Mines for boss Kevin Fickes, the program's winningest head coach. With a career mark of 226-41-38 (.803), he ranks sixth in all of the NCAA and third in Division II among head coaches with at least five years of experience when it comes to winning percentage. One of two RMAC coaches with 200 career victories, under his direction Mines has overseen 36 All-America selections, 17 Academic All-America selections, 75 all-conference honorees and 25 RMAC major award winners. Fickes has also guided Mines to six RMAC regular season titles and nine RMAC Tournament crowns and made 15 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
 
THE CAPTAINS
The three Orediggers who wore the captain's 'C' in 2023 will do so again in 2024 as Ava Harman, Katie Koehler and Reese McDermott will all reprise their roles this fall.
 
Harman, a fifth-year player, started all 22 matches last season, logging a career-best marks with two goals and seven assists with both goals being game winners. Going back to her freshman season in the spring of 2020, Harman has started 68 of 72 matches in her career.
 
Koehler, another fifth-year player, tied her career high with four goals last fall while also registering the first two assists of her career from her center back spot after starting 21 of 22 matches. Like Koehler, she brings a wealth of experience and has started 69 times in her 72 matches played for over 6,000 minutes.
 
McDermott enters her fourth and final season at Mines as one of the greatest to ever don the Silver & Blue with her named dotted across the program's record book. The reigning RMAC Player of the Year, former Freshman of the Year and three-time First Team All-RMAC selection, she scored 11 times with a career-high eight assists in 2023 with four game-winners while starting 21 times in 22 matches. Another experienced veteran, the striker has started 59 times in 63 matches since setting foot on campus in the fall of 2021.
 
THE SETUP (CONTINUED)
Through most of the 2023 season and especially in the first half of the campaign, Mines was absolutely prolific when scoring on set piece opportunities, be it free kicks or corner kicks. 16 times last fall the Orediggers cashed in with a goal on a set piece opportunity and two of the parties responsible for a great deal of that production were at it again on Sunday. When Natalie Rouse headed home Ava Harman's corner kick just before the break against Chico State, it was the fifth time the duo had connected for a goal in a set piece situation. Seven of Harman's 10 career assists have now come by way of set pieces while all seven of Rouse's goals have been headers finishing off either a free kick or a corner kick. If the Orediggers can replicate the success they had in this area of the game from a season ago, opponents will have a tough go of it once again in 2024.
 
CLIMBING THE RANKS
It's no secret by now that Reese McDermott is one of the best players in the history of women's soccer at Mines. With her goal on opening day against SFSU, the senior now has 35 career goals, 82 career points and 12 game-winning goals. Those numbers all rank fourth all-time in the program record books as McDermott looks to continue climbing the ranks. She's now three goals behind Megan Woodworth (2009-12) in scoring and also trails her by one for third in game-winning goals. Meanwhile, goalie Sadie Wolf's opening day shutout raises her career total to 19 and now trails Briana Schulze (2007-10) by seven for third all-time. Someone on the verge of breaking into the record books is the reigning RMAC Freshman of the Year Bella Campos. After registering 36 points and breaking the freshman single-season scoring record by five last season, Bella Campos now has 37 points after her assist Sunday against Chico State and needs just four more points to catch Jackie Knott (2013-16) for 10th in that department.
 
SOMETHING ABOUT STERMOLE
Despite seeing a program record 36 match home unbeaten streak come to an end last fall, the Orediggers have taken full advantage of playing matches at Stermole Stadium. Opened in 2009 and one of the top venues in all of Division II, the women of Mines soccer have posted a record of 138-16-18 (.855) when playing there. Couple with the altitude of more than 5,700 feet, opponents definitely have plenty to try and manage when they come to Golden for a match.
 
WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS
It didn't take long for the Orediggers to take home some hardware in the 2024 season as Mines took two out of three weekly honors from the RMAC to start the season. Ava Harman was named Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career and earned the second weekly accolade of her career and first since the fall 2021 season, while Natalie Rouse took home her sixth Defensive Player of the Week honor since the start of last fall. Read more about the RMAC weekly awards here.
 
NOW INTRODUCING…
Six newcomers join the Orediggers for the 2024 season, all of whom are first-year players at the collegiate level. Read more about this year's signing class here.
 
IN THE POLLS
It was a close one, but in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll Mines was tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the league in 2024, earning seven first place votes while reigning champions UCCS earned six. Colorado Mesa was picked to finish third with Regis and MSU Denver rounding out the top five.
 
On the national stage, Mines surged into the Top 10 at #6 this week while Colorado Mesa dropped to #18, UCCS dropped out of the Top 25 but still received votes while Western Washington entered at #20.
 
CHECKING THE STATS
Two matches into the season Mines finds themselves 2-0 and while it might not quite mirror the start of the 2023 season, outscoring folks 8-0 over your first two matches is very hard to do. Nonetheless, Mines has found the back of the net three times this season thanks to Reese McDermott, Natalie Rouse and Ava Harman while Cloey Seltzer, Harman and Bella Campos have all recorded assists on those goals.
 
Between the pipes Sadie Wolf has resumed her duties as they starting keeper for the Orediggers and has made five saves against one goal allowed in 180 minutes for a 0.50 GAA and an .833 save rate with one shutout against just 12 shots faced.
 
As a team, Mines is averaging 1.5 goals and 14.0 shots per game while allowing 0.5 and 6.0 to opponents, with a 15-6 edge in shots on goal. The Orediggers have recorded an assist on every goal thus far and have five saves defensively while taking 13 corner kicks and have yet to attempt a penalty shot in 2024.
 
SCOUTING LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN
The Lady Chaps posted a 1-0-1 mark on opening weekend against a pair of RMAC opponents, playing Fort Lewis to a 1-1 draw last Thursday before blanking Adams State Saturday by a score of 2-0.
 
Three different players have been responsible for the three goals for LCU this season, with two of them also registering an assist. Avery Jennings and Ella Spiller each have three points in the early going while Ceci Madrid has two. Emma Best and Mia Chambliss both have an assist to their names and round out the five players who have contributed on offense in the first two matches.
 
In goal, Emma Wright has started both matches and played 135 minutes making eight saves and allowing just one goal for a 0.67 GAA and an .889 save rate against 21 shots faced. Megan Mirabal came on in relief against Adams State, playing the second half of senior day and did not record any stats against eight shots faced from the Grizzlies.
 
LCU is averaging 1.5 goals and 8.0 shots per game currently and has four assists on their three goals while recording nine saves as a team. They have taken 10 corner kicks and not yet attempted a penalty this year.
 
SCOUTING WEST TEXAS A&M
Looking to take a step forward from a 1-10-6 season in 2023, the Lady Buffs had just one match scheduled on opening weekend and had their hands full for the first 60 minutes against Western Colorado, playing the Mountaineers scoreless through the first half before a frenzied 10-minute stretch saw the teams exchange five goals with WTAMU coming out ahead with the go-ahead score in the 60th minute before tacking on some insurance in the 81st minute of a 4-2 win.
 
Two of those four goals scored came thanks to Reagan Matacale, who found the next in the 54th and 81st minutes, matching her scoring total from the entirety of 2023 in one weekend. Avery Putnam, who scored just once all last season, scored the first goal of the season in the 50th minute while Angelo State graduate transfer Madison Stokes posted the go-ahead goal in the 60th minute while also registering two assists. Her younger sister, Lauren, also logged an assist as did Leslie Rodriguez in the winning effort.
 
In goal, fifth-year keeper Reagan Heelan made her 63rd consecutive start between the pipes and recorded eight saves while allowing the two goals against 15 shots faced from WCU.
 
A team that averaged just 7.4 shots per game as season ago, WTAMU took aim 22 times in their opener with 10 shots on goal. With just six assists on 11 goals last fall, the Lady Buffs already have four this season and have taken five corner kicks.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Thursday night's match with the Lady Chaps will mark the first ever meeting between Mines and Lubbock Christian, while Sunday will be the sixth time the Orediggers and Lady Buffs square off on the pitch. In five previous meetings with West Texas A&M, Mines is 5-0-0 and 3-0-0 all-time when playing in Golden. The last meeting between the teams came in Golden eight years ago back in 2016 and resulted in a 1-0 win for the Orediggers thanks to a 34th minute PK from Emily Garnier.
 
UP NEXT
The Orediggers head back west next weekend but will this time be well farther north as they head to Washington for a pair of matches against Saint Martin's on Friday September 20 and 2022 national champion Western Washington On September 22.
 
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.