(2) #7 Mines (13-2-4, 9-1-2 RMAC) vs. (1) #22 Colorado Mesa (14-2-2, 9-0-2 RMAC) – Saturday, 5 p.m. – Grand Junction, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network PPV] [Tickets] [Tournament Central]

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CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY NIGHT
Two RMAC powerhouses will collide Saturday at Community Unity Hospital Field as the #7 Colorado School of Mines squares off with regular season champion #22 Colorado Mesa in the championship match of the 2025 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Women's Soccer Championship.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Saturday's match will be available for purchase on the RMAC Network. Free live stats will be available as well. Links for video and stats can be found on minesathletics.com.
 
FAN INFORMATION
As has been the case for the past two years of postseason play, the RMAC Women's Soccer Championship will remain on subscription model for all championship broadcasts. Broadcasts of all championship matches are included in annual or monthly subscriptions. Access to individual matches is available for $10.60 including taxes & fees. A championship day pass is also available $15 and includes access to all championship broadcasts for a 24-hour period. For technical support questions, fans may submit a support ticket with Hudl Support or email the RMAC directly (help@rmacsports.org). For further support, fans can visit the RMAC Network Help page.
 
Fans are also reminded that there is no passlist for the postseason. Fans are strongly encouraged to purchase advance tickets through Hudl Tickets prior to the event. Single-match general admission tickets are $16 while tickets for children ages 6-17, adults over 65 and military personnel are $11. A two-day pass for both semifinal and championship matches is available for $27.54 including service fees.
 
SEMIFINAL RESET
Wednesday night in Grand Junction saw two thrilling semifinal matches that delivered nothing but the best of the postseason between the top four teams in the league. In the first action of the night between Colorado Mesa and Fort Lewis, it took until the 86th minute for the first (and only) goal of the night to go on the board as CMU's Olivia Bariao-Arce scored from Peyton Bundy while Keely Wieczorek and the defense pitched a shutout in a 1-0 win to advance to Saturday's title game. The second match of the night between Mines and UCCS saw Mines score first in the 22nd minute thanks to Bella Campos with help from Afton Rasco and Kaitlyn Manalili, but the storyline of regulation was missed chances. A missed PK and two practically uncontested looks by Campos along with a number of shots from others that hit the frame of goal allowed UCCS to stay in contention before tying the match on a goal from Abby Stassi early in the second half. After a pair of scoreless overtime periods, the match went to a penalty shootout which ended in the 10th round with the Orediggers advancing 5-4 off the foot of Sam Forde while Allie Lundgren made three saves and also converted from the spot to punch Mines' ticket to the title match.
 
AT THE HELM
2025 marks the 16th season leading Mines for boss Kevin Fickes, the program's winningest head coach. With a career mark of 257-44-44 (.809), he ranks eighth in all of the NCAA and fourth 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 39 All-America selections, 19 Academic All-America selections, 87 all-conference honorees and 32 RMAC major award winners. Fickes has also guided Mines to seven RMAC regular season titles and 10 RMAC Tournament crowns and made 16 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
 
THE CAPTAINS
After having the same trio of captains for each of the last two seasons, a new group will be wearing the "C" for the Orediggers in 2025 as Callie Fuhr, Natalie Rouse and Bella Campos will lead the way this fall.
 
Fuhr, a fixture on the Orediggers' back line since 2022, has started 53 consecutive matches going back to October of her debut season and enters this fall with seven career points thanks to a goal and five assists. Across 67 matches in her career, she's clocked more than 5,250 minutes and in 2024 led the team with 2,064 minutes of action.
 
Rouse, the 2023 RMAC Defensive Player of the Year in her debut season in Golden, returns to action in 2025 after missing the final 21 matches of 2024 due to injury and will lineup alongside Fuhr to anchor the Mines defense at center back. The former All-America selection has started all of the 24 career matches in her career as an Oredigger and owns seven goals and an assist for 15 points in more than 2,100 minutes of action.
 
Campos, the latest prolific striker to come through Mines, already sports her name in the program record books in numerous places. The 2023 RMAC Freshman of the Year and 2024 RMAC Co-Player of the Year as well as a two-time All-American, Campos looks to step into a larger role in 2025 as an everyday starter. Despite just making 16 starts in her first 45 career matches, Campos has been a prolific producer on offense regardless of her role with 30 goals and 11 assists for 71 points in just over 2,100 minutes played.
 
A veteran and experienced group that has plenty of RMAC and NCAA Tournament experience, this trio will look to make an impact as leaders of the program heading into this fall.
 
IN THE POLLS
In the RMAC preseason coaches poll released in early August, the Orediggers were picked to repeat as league champions behind nine first place ballots of the 13 head coaches in the league. UCCS earned three first place ballots and was picked second with Colorado Mesa, MSU Denver and Fort Lewis rounding out the top five.
 
Nationally, Mines remained seventh in this week's United Soccer Coaches Top 25. This week's rankings saw the most stability of the season with just two changes in the top 14. Dallas Baptist remains the top team in the country followed by Minnesota State, Catawba, Cal Poly Pomona while West Florida usurped Grand Valley State this week for fifth.
Around the RMAC, UCCS remained at #14 for the third week in a row while Colorado Mesa dropped three spots to 23rd. Fort Lewis entered the national conversation this week as they received votes.
 
The latest NCAA Regional rankings released Wednesday had the Orediggers at #2 in the South Central Region. National #1 Dallas Baptist (16-1-0) leads the region followed by Mines. Colorado Mesa (13-1-2) and UCCS (12-2-4) followed in third and fourth. Midwestern State (10-1-6) was fifth with Texas Woman's (13-2-3) moving up one spot to sixth followed by UT Tyler (10-2-5) in seventh. Regis dropped from the rankings this week, replaced by Fort Lewis (11-4-3) to round out the top eight in the region.
 
ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
A total of six Orediggers earned All-RMAC distinction earlier on Tuesday, headlined by Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year Bella Campos and Natalie Rouse. Joining them on the All-RMAC First Team was Afton Rasco, while Kaitlyn Manalili earned Second Team honors. Jolie Jiricek and Gaby Guerrero rounded out the selections with Honorable Mention honors. Read more about the All-RMAC selections here.
 
GONNA NEED A BIGGER TROPHY CASE
With their coronations as Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year respectively, Bella Campos and Natalie Rouse each made a little bit of history Tuesday. For Campos, she earns her third RMAC major award in as many seasons and becomes the second player in program history to earn Freshman of the Year and multiple Offensive Player of the Year honors along with Reese McDermott, with whom she split POTY honors in 2024. Rouse meanwhile becomes the second player in program history to earn multiple Defensive Player of the Year honors alongside recent Mines Hall of Fame inductee Emily Garnier. Rouse also extended Mines' streak of DPOTY titles to five consecutive seasons and nine of the last 11.

BRAINY BUNCH
Allie Lundgren and Natalie Rouse headlined Mines' selections the RMAC's First Team All-Academic Wednesday as a total of 16 Orediggers earned academic honors from the league for their performances in the classroom. Read more about their academic accomplishments here.
 
RARE AIR
Bella Campos made more history Wednesday night, becoming just the fourth player in Mines women's soccer history to score 50 goals in a career and also just the second player to scored 20 or more goals in a single season. On the career list, she joins Reese McDermott, Anna Evans and Kayla Mitchell while now just she and Mitchell can lay claim to now the only three 20-goal seasons by an individual (Mitchell scored 30 in 2009 and 22 in 2008). With at least two more matches in the season, Campos is sure to have plenty more opportunities to add to her record tally before things come to and end.
 
SHOOTOUT THRILLER
Wednesday night's penalty kick shootout was the longest such shootout in Mines women's soccer postseason history. The previous long in RMAC Tournament action was an eight-rounder in 2018 while the longest in an NCAA Tournament match was a seven-round exchange back in 2012 against UC San Diego. Undoubtedly, the star of the show was Allie Lundgren who made a total of four PK saves during the night, with one in regulation and another three in the shootout including two in the final two rounds while also converting from the spot in the eighth round. Sam Forde also shared the spotlight, as her conversion in the 10th round came just eight days removed from missing a potential game-sealing PK in regulation in the last match of the regular season at CSU Pueblo.
 
DISHING IT OUT
Being able to score consistently starts with having players who can effectively distribute the ball or have an affinity for ball placement on set pieces. This fall, the Orediggers have one of the best tandems when it comes to assists in the RMAC and the country as Afton Rasco and Kaitlyn Manalili have combined for 17 of the team's 27 assists this season. Rasco, another former Freshman of the Year in the RMAC, is having a career year in her final campaign as she leads the team and the conference with nine assists. Fellow senior Kaitlyn Manalili meanwhile is following up an All-Region season last fall with another career year this year, breaking her mark of six dimes in 2024 with eight in 2025, four of which have come in the last 10 days at the time of writing. As Mines moves further into the postseason, this duo is sure to be leading the charge in the attacking third.
 
LEAGUE LEADERS
As the postseason moves forward, Bella Campos continues to add to her impressive scoring haul and heads to the semifinals with 19 goals. Campos also leads the league in shots with 68, and is second in shots on goal with 33. Afton Rasco's nine assists also led the RMAC this fall while Kaitlyn Manalili now finds herself in second with eight. Campos, Natalie Rouse and Lindsay Jeans also ranked in the top 10 in game-winners, with Campos' four being good for a four-way tie for second, Rouse's three tying for sixth and Jean's two tying for 10th. Between the pipes, Allie Lundgren ranks fifth in the RMAC in goals against average at 0.81 and saves with 62 while her .827 save rate is good for fourth. She also ranked sixth with five shutouts.
 
As a team, Mines boasts the #2 offense in the RMAC with 37 goals scored and is tied for fourth defensively with 14 goals allowed. Their eight penalty kicks lead the league by five over the two next closest teams while their 98 corner kicks now lead the conference. The Orediggers are also the cleanest team this year as they led the league with the fewest fouls at 106. Their three yellow cards were also the fewest in the conference.
 
ON THE SPOT
Penalty kicks aren't necessarily a regular occurrence over the course of a season, but they also aren't necessarily a rarity either. This fall, Mines has made a living on earning PKs and converting at a high rate, going 8-10 from the spot this season. That's a new single-season record for the most PKs made, breaking the previous mark of five set back in 2008. In addition, the nine PKs awarded a new single-season record, breaking last year's tally of seven. To top it off, the Orediggers lead Division II in penalties this fall and are among the leaders from the spot across all levels of the NCAA.
 
MILESTONE WIN
Back on October 17, Mines' win over Colorado Christian was another milestone mark in the legendary career of Orediggers head coach Kevin Fickes. Nearly four years to the day of his 200th career win, the Mines skipper banked #250 at the same venue against the same opponent thanks to a 1-0 win over Colorado Christian at Trailblazer Stadium in Lakewood. Over his first 15 seasons, the Orediggers have averaged better than 16 wins per season under Fickes' direction and have won at least 11 matches in 15 of those seasons (Mines went 7-0-3 in the COVID-shortened spring 2021 season). On pace to put up similar numbers this season, Fickes and the Orediggers will look to continue handling their business as they now set their sights on the second half of the 2025 regular season and the postseason.
 
MAKING THEIR MARK
Several active Orediggers are making their mark on the program's record books this season as they continue their careers. Most recently, Allie Lundgren became just the seventh goalkeeper in program history to record 100 career saves, doing so at MSU Denver on October 12. Entering Saturday night, she stands at 133 in her career and has passed Sierra Roth (2018-21) for fourth all-time. Lundgren is also sixth in career shutouts with 15, and is two back of Zumbro for a top five spot in that category as well. Meanwhile, her 0.66 goals against average also ranks sixth.
 
Sadie Wolf's mark of 0.58 GAA puts her ahead of Lundgren in fifth while her 87 saves rank eighth all-time and 18 shutouts are good for fourth.
 
Bella Campos meanwhile continues to pile up the goals and the points. At New Mexico Highlands on October 31, she became the fifth player in program history to surpass 100 career points and stands at 115 through 64 matches and trails Megan Woodworth (2009-12) by just five for fourth all-time. Wednesday against UCCS in the RMAC semifinals, she became the fourth player in program history to score 50 times in a career. Campos is also knocking on the door to the top 10 in assists with 15, trailing Reese McDermott by five. Additionally, her 12 game-winners have her one back of fourth all-time and Megan Woodworth (2009-12). Campos currently now stands along among active players in Division II and is now alone in 13th across all levels of the NCAA with 50 career goals.
 
Afton Rasco and Kaitlyn Manalili are also looking to further pen their name into the program records when it comes to assists with 17 apiece, while Rasco recently broke into the top 10 all-time in points and is currently tied for eighth with Jennifer Kendall (2015-18) with 53.
 
CHECKING THE STATS
Bella Campos' career year continues as she's now up to 20 goals with four assists for 44 points. Natalie Rouse is second on the team in scoring with four goals followed by Afton Rasco's three. Gaby Guerrero, Lindsay Jeans, Caelan DeBolt, Callie Fuhr and Annelise Rojo all have two goals each while Natalie Mezarina rounds out the scoring with on goal.
 
When it comes to assists, Rasco and Kaitlyn Manalili are 1-2 on the team as well as the RMAC with 10 and nine assists respectively. Behind Campos, Anna Gessner has four while Guerrero, Jeans, Mezarina and Jordan Bowermaster all have one.
 
Between the pipes, Allie Lundgren has started all 19 matches for 1,553:49 and has faced 231 shots, making 68 saves against 14 goals for an .829 save rate and a 0.81 GAA. The senior is 13-2-4 with five solo shutouts and three combined shutouts. Backing her up this season has been Emma Thomas, who has made six appearances for 176:11 and against 26 shots, has made 10 saves and allowed one goal for a .909 save percentage and a 0.51 GAA while combining with Lundgren for another three shutouts.
 
On the season, Mines has outscored teams 37-14 and averages 2.06 goals on 13.9 shots per match while holding opposing teams to 0.78 goals on 13.2 shots per match. They have 27 assists on their 37 goals and have combined for 73 saves. They are 8-9 from the spot and taken 98 corner kicks. The Orediggers have been whistled for 106 fouls and issued just three cautions.
 
SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS
Colorado Mesa is having a historic season under second-year head coach Jody Lingafeldt, marching to a 14-2-2 record and going 9-0-1 this season at home. Community Hospital Unity Field has been a tough place for visiting teams under Lingafeldt's leadership, with CMU posting a mark of 16-0-2 in 18 matches since the start of last season. The Mavericks also boast the best defense in Division II with a GAA 0.22 and are tied for the fewest goals allowed this year with four. That figure is also second across all levels of the NCAA and trails only Division II Loras, who has allowed three goals.
 
Kylie Wells leads the team in scoring with nine goals and three assists for 21 points with five game-winners and is 1-1 on PKs this season. Wednesday's hero Olivia Bariao-Arce now has four goals on the season along with Ellie Duncan while Parker Mairs and Sarah Dunn have three apiece. Olivia Barrett and Brooklyn Baird check in with two each while a further five Mavericks have one goal each. Looking at assists, behind Wells six players have two dimes each in the persons of Bariao-Arce, Duncan, Dunn, Barrett, Peyton Bundy and Latie Lozano-Monjaraz.
 
It has been all Keely Wieczorek in goal this fall for CMU and with good reason. The back-to-back RMAC Goalkeeper of the Year has allowed just four goals all season, all of which came in a three-game stretch in mid-September. The junior and her defense posted an RMAC clean sheet, blanking league teams 11 times as part of their 15 shutouts on the season. In 1,620:00 in goal, she's made 53 saves against 130 shots faced and has a GAA of 0.22 and a .930 save percentage.
 
As a team, Colorado Mesa is now +28 in goal differential at 32-4 and averages 1.78 goals on 16.8 shots per match, while allowing a meager 0.22 goals on just 7.8 shots to the opposition. They have 20 assists on their 32 goals and have made 56 saves defensively. The Mavs are 1-2 from the spot and taken 98 corner kicks this season. They have been whistled for 169 fouls and issued 13 yellow cards.

SERIES HISTORY
Earlier this season, the Orediggers and Mavericks played to a scoreless draw in Golden which on the stat sheet leaned decidedly in favor of the visitors. All-time, Mines leads the series 20-6-3 with a mark of 9-2-1 in Grand Junction. The teams last met in the RMAC Tournament was the 2023 title match in Golden which saw CMU post a 3-0 win to claim the cup. The last five meetings in the series have all been at Stermole Stadium with the last action in Grand Junction coming in the 2023 regular season and resulting in a 4-0 Mines victory. Going back to 2015, the Orediggers are 4-1-0 in their last five road matches with the Mavs.
 
UP NEXT
Regardless of the outcome Saturday, Mines will await their NCAA Tournament destination and tune in for the national tournament selection show at 4:30 pm. MT on Monday November 17.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines women's soccer on X 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.