Sunday brought a bit of déjà vu to Dirks Field for the Fort Lewis College women’s soccer team.
On Friday, the Skyhawks put up one of the team’s best efforts of the season, but a scramble in front of the net led to a late second half goal by Colorado Mines in a 1-0 loss. In Sunday’s 83rd minute, another free kick deflected multiple times in front of FLC goalkeeper Kaylee Mickens, and Colorado Christian’s Hannah Triem was in the right place to bury the game-winner for the Cougars.
The Skyhawks (6-8-2, 5-6-1 RMAC) created a few chances in the waning minutes of play, but the goal held up as Colorado Christian delivered the second consecutive 1-0 loss to FLC to close out regular season play.
“I’m extremely proud of the girls for the way they’ve worked through some of these unfortunate losses,” Skyhawks head coach Jimmy Hall said. “It’s easy to work hard when the team is winning, but we’ve had some tough ones lately and they continue to work even harder. Our season is far from over.”
Fort Lewis will have a chance to make a postseason run as they finished in the top eight in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings. Unlike previous years in which only six teams reached the RMAC Tournament, this year FLC will be in because the field has been expanded to eight.
Heading into Sunday’s match, the Cougars and Skyhawks were already cemented in the tournament, all that was left was a determination of the bracket’s seedings.
Early on, it looked like FLC was the team that would rise in the standings. Fort Lewis launched nine shots at Cougars goalkeeper Shaya Lawrence in a first half in which the home team had the majority of chances.
Colorado Christian (8-6-3, 5-4-3 RMAC) struggled to create quality chances for most of the game, but head coach Tammy McPherson decided to shake up the strategy and put Triem up front, which paid off in a big way.
“I’ve actually never, ever played up there,” Triem said. “I was excited to get back in the game, and it wasn’t long before the ball was bouncing around in front of me. It kind of slowed down a little and I got my left foot on it.”
It wasn’t struck perfectly, but the shot barely made it inside the post to the left of Mickens. With the win, Colorado Christian hopped the Skyhawks in the standings to sixth-place and gives them the chance to play in the RMAC Tournament for the first time in 13 years. As the sixth seed, the Cougars will play Regis.
The Skyhawks dropped to seven, and will face second-seeded CSU-Pueblo Wednesday in Pueblo.
Men’s SoccerThe Fort Lewis men’s soccer team finished its regular season schedule with a loss Sunday, but it’s not the end for the Skyhawks.
FLC (9-8-1, 8-5-1 RMAC) and Metro State met in Denver on Sunday as both were jockeying for RMAC Tournament positioning. The match was tied through the first 57 minutes until Roadrunners’ Josh Belfrage took matters into his own hands.
Belfrage scored the first goal of the game to give Metro State (11-6-1, 9-4-1 RMAC) the lead and added another for good measure just over ten minutes later to put the match away.
As the sixth seed, Fort Lewis will travel to play UC-Colorado Springs in the opening round of the RMAC Tournament scheduled for Wednesday. The Mountain Lions beat Fort Lewis 1-0 in overtime Friday.
jfries@durangoherald.com
