No. 6 UCCS Women’s Soccer outscored their opponents 7-1 in back-to-back road wins last week while also receiving the 2020-2021 United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award.
Their week began on Sept. 24 at the Western Colorado University Mountaineers for the RMAC opener, where they finished with a blowout performance, 4-0. UCCS now leads the all-time series against the Mountaineers 10-2.
The scoring began when redshirt senior midfield/forward Ella Fischer netted a goal — the quickest goal scored in a game this season — during the fourth minute. Redshirt junior midfield Katie Puchino then scored a goal off an assist from freshman forward Jadyn Ledoux.
After ending the first half 2-0, the Mountain Lions came out in the second half with a third goal in the 60th minute. Redshirt senior forward Tori Maydew passed the ball over to LeDoux who chipped in for the 3-0 lead. The final score occurred in the 74th minute, with a pass from Maydew to assist forward graduate student Bri Johnson for the final score to end 4-0.
The UCCS defense allowed only two shots the entire contest from the Mountaineers. The Mountain Lions also registered their third consecutive shutout of the season.
UCCS then traveled to face the Fort Lewis Skyhawks Sept. 26, where they came out on top, 4-1.
This game was scoreless until the 35th minute when midfield graduate student Tarah Patterson passed from midfield to LeDoux, who hit the bottom left of the net to put UCCS up 1-0 and end the half. UCCS left the first half posting a shutout for the fourth consecutive game, while limiting the Skyhawks to just two shots.
Patterson propelled UCCS to a 2-0 lead with a goal just two minutes into the second half, off an assist from forward redshirt freshman Makayla Merlo. Patterson’s goal was the 30th in her career and her fourth this season; she now holds first place in all-time program history.
In the 70th minute UCCS scored again, making it 3-0 after forward redshirt sophomore Kaitlin Hinkle passed to Johnson who shot and scored. Fort Lewis got their one and only score 15 seconds later.
But there was no chance for Fort Lewis to come back as UCCS freshman midfield Fie Steenberg shot it in for the final goal of the game.
The Mountain Lions are now 6-15 all-time against Fort Lewis.
On top of the two wins this last week, UCCS women’s soccer also received the United Soccer Coaches 2020-21 Team Academic Award on Sept. 23 after recording a 3.41 cumulative GPA. This is the third straight year UCCS received the award.
According to Go Mountain Lions, UCCS also earned nine RMAC All-Academic awards, including Patterson being voting RMAC Co-Academic Player of the Year. Patterson, Fischer and Amelia Junge were all named CoSIDA Academic All-District and United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-Region Selections.
UCCS returns home on Friday, Oct. 1 against Westminster at 11 a.m. in the annual Storm the Stadium game at Mountain Lion Stadium; the first 100 UCCS students at the game will receive a free T-shirt.
