Two wins in three days rocketed the Fort Lewis College men’s soccer team from fifth to second in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
Days after a big 3-0 road win at Metro State, the Skyhawks (5-3-4, 5-1-2 RMAC) returned home to Dirks Field for a Sunday matchup against Colorado Christian (1-9-2, 1-6-1 RMAC). An early slip gave the Cougars a 1-0 lead in the sixth minute, but a goal 11 minutes later from Ryan Lee tied the match. Nicolas Perez added a goal in the 74th minute on a penalty kick, and it stood as the game-winner for FLC in a 2-1 victory.
Perez’s goal came after Colorado Christian’s Joe Wilkes was issued a yellow card. It was his first score of the season. Lee’s goal was his team-leading fifth of the year and came from roughly 7 yards out with an assist from Ty Lang.
FLC outshout the Cougars 15-6. Both keepers, Peter Byrne of FLC and Taylor Budzinski of Colorado Christian, made four saves in the match.
The Cougars’ goal was an own-goal by the Skyhawks, who tried to pass the ball back to Byrne but had it slip past for a goal.
FLC is behind only Colorado Mines in the RMAC standings. The Orediggers are 9-3 overall and 7-1 in conference play. FLC will visit Regis at 4 p.m. Friday and face Colorado Mines in a marquee game at noon Sunday in Golden.
In the final meet before the RMAC Championship, the Fort Lewis cross-country teams traveled east to Illinois to face elite Division II competition.
The FLC men finished 16th out of 31 teams with 415 points, and the women scored 533 points to finish 20th out of 34 teams.
The top FLC finish came from Shawvan Levi, who was 28th in the men’s race. He finished the 8-kilometer run in 25 minutes, 38.3 seconds. The race was won by Gatien Airiau of Academy of Art, who crossed in 24:42.7. Grand Valley State University won the men’s race as a team with 55 points.
The top finish for an FLC woman came from Becca Bramley. She finished 45th in the 6-kilomater race in 22:48.1. The race was won by Alaska Anchorage’s Caroline Kurgat in 21:18.9. Cal Baptist won the team competition with 51 points.
The Skyhawks (8-8, 3-5 RMAC) couldn’t gain any momentum from two big road wins last weekend.
After falling to No. 22 Colorado Mines 3-0 on Friday, the FLC volleyball team lost 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-17) to Colorado Christian at home Saturday.
Emily Dellenbach led FLC with 11 kills, while Hannah Martinez and Laine Waters had 10 each. Maddie LeBlanc had three blocks, Kendra Swackenberg dished out 40 assists and Megan Graefe had 24 digs.
Sophia Proano had a match-high 18 kills for the Cougars (10-7, 7-1 RMAC).
FLC will stay at home for homecoming this weekend with a 7 p.m. Friday match against Chadron State and a 5 p.m. Saturday game against Regis.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
