The only coach the University of Colorado Colorado Springs women’s soccer team has ever needed, Nichole Ridenour begins her ninth season after the most successful season in program history in 2015.
UCCS won its first playoff game last season in a 2-0 victory against New Mexico Highlands in the RMAC First Round game. The Mountain Lions placed three student-athletes on the NSCAA All-Region teams for the first time in program history and Michaela Mansfield became the first student-athlete to reach the All-America ballot for the Division II Conference Commissioner's Association team.
The Mountain Lions were ranked as high as No. 13 in Division II last season, two spots off of the program-high No. 11 in the 2012 season. UCCS was regionally ranked in the NCAA ranking last season, and has been listed in the NCAA ranking in four of the eight seasons.
Ridenour has led the team to three of the last four RMAC Tournaments.She is eighth in RMAC history with 64 career victories going into the 2016 season, and needs 12 to move into a tie for seventh.
In 2012, Ridenour guided the Mountain Lions to a home playoff game for the first time in program and a No. 4 seed in the RMAC tournament. UCCS tied for third in the regular season standings for the best win record in program history and advanced to the tournament for the third time in the team’s five seasons.
The Mountain Lions became nationally ranked for the first time in program history in 2012, and reached as high as No. 11 in the national polls on Sept. 18 after a program-record six-game winning streak to open the season. UCCS would end up with a 13-4-2 record.
In eight seasons, Ridenour has coached two RMAC Goalkeepers of the Year, seven All-RMAC First Team members and five all-region student-athletes. In the classroom, the Mountain Lions have collected 56 RMAC All-Academic awards, including nine First Team accolades, and have placed one student-athlete on the Capital One Academic All-District team.
Ridenour’s teams have improved in each of her first five years and came within a game of a winning record in her fourth season of 2011. UCCS put together a pair of three-game winning streaks during the season
Ridenour joined the UCCS staff after a successful high school coaching career at Fountain Valley High School in Colorado Springs. Both the boys and girls team won the Tri-Peaks League championships and the boys advanced to the Class 3 state championship game. She was the league coach of the year.
Ridenour’s boys teams went a combined 26-6-2 in her final two seasons.
Ridenour was previously a member of the Colorado Springs United / Colorado Springs Sabers, a semi-professional team that operated within the Women’s Premier Soccer League. She became a member of team after open tryouts. Ridenour also took the initiative of owning and operating the Colorado Springs United women’s semi-professional team in 2006-07.
Ridenour is a 2004 graduate of Minnesota-Morris, where she was a three-time All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference student-athlete. She still ranks eighth at Minnesota-Morris in career goals and career goals per game.
Ridenour is married to Kevin, and the couple have two children.
