COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - RMAC tournament No. 6 seed University of Colorado Colorado Springs (6-7-3 / 5-6-3 RMAC) takes on No. 3 seed Colorado Mesa University (10-5-3 / 8-3-3 RMAC) tonight at Walker Field in Grand Junction, Colo. The Match will begin at 6 p.m.
Tonight will mark the 12th time that UCCS has made the conference tournament dating all the way back to 1991 when UCCS was still in the Colorado Athletic Conference.
It will be a defensive battle as UCCS (1.31) and CMU (0.78) boasts the two best goals against average in the RMAC.
If the Mountain Lions hope for different results besides the 0-0 and 1-1 ties they played to against the Mavericks earlier this season then they will first have to get past RMAC Goalkeeper of the Year Micah Conrads. The junior keeper was 6-0-2 on the season with a goal against average of 0.83. UCCS only faced Conrads in the two team's second meeting this season but managed a goal in the 1-1 tie.
Luckily for UCCS they have a few All-RMAC performers of their own.
James Roberts and
Max Thomas were both named to the second team while
Sebastian Hertzberg was named to the third team. Roberts leads the team in points (15), Thomas leads a backline that is second best in the RMAC in goals against, and Hertzberg is capable of huge games at times with a hat trick this season.
A player to watch out for is
Mathew Cox who has been striking the ball extremely well as of late scoring five goals in his past two games including a hat trick against Colorado State University-Pueblo in the regular season finale. His offense will be vital in tonight's defensive game.
Brandon Costa (6-6-3) will be called upon once again to keep his team in it as he's done all season. It would be a great game for Costa to collect another shutout as he was tied for second in the RMAC this season with four.
UCCS head coach
Johnnie Keen (15-16-4 at UCCS) has a chance to improve on his own person record against the Mavericks as well. Keen is 1-1-2 against CMU in his tenure at UCCS.
Coach Keen is also second all-time in school history with his second RMAC playoff appearance in as many seasons. He now only trails Eddy Dietz (111-101-19) who had eight playoff appearances in his time at UCCS. A win tonight would also tie Keen with Dietz for most playoff wins as Dietz was 2-7-2 in the playoffs. Keen is 1-1 heading into tonight's matchup.
 The all-time series is at 3-7-3 with UCCS leading.
