COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference announced the 2022 RMAC Women's Soccer All-Academic Team Monday morning with UCCS Women's Soccer earning 13 honors, including Abby Barhydt who claims her first career RMAC All-Academic First Team selection.

Lila Dere of Colorado Mesa University is voted this year's RMAC Women's Soccer Academic Player of the Year with a 3.73 GPA in Business Entrepreneurship.

Student-athletes were voted on by the conference's sports information directors. To be eligible for first-team consideration, a student-athlete must carry at least a 3.50 cumulative grade-point-average (GPA). For conference honor roll, a student-athlete must carry at least a 3.30 cumulative GPA. Student-athletes must also have been an active student at the institution for at least two consecutive semesters or three consecutive quarters.

From Monument, Colo., Abby Barhydt has served as a spark and key playmaker on the Mountain Lion defense with 13 starts in 13 games played. In 915 minutes, Barhydt has made a difference on both sides of the ball by netting one goal while notching five assists for seven points on the season. She went on a three-game streak of recording an assist as she's also accumulated 14 shots with five landing on frame.

The Mountain Lions collect a total of 12 honor roll selections including Fabiola Estrada, Makenna Fowler, Kaitlin Hinkle, Jade Kinsey, Sydney Lasater, Jadyn LeDoux, Leikela Lunt, Makayla Merlo, Zoe Sims, Fie Steenberg, Kelsey Takahashi, and Alexis Walker.

A redshirt senior out of Brighton, Colo., Fabiola Estrada holds a 3.403 GPA as a Chemistry major to earn her second career RMAC Honor Roll selection. Estrada has had a career season from the midfield position with 11 points tallied up off a career-high four goals and three assists. Estrada went back-to-back games with two goals scored against Western Colorado (Sep. 15) and Fort Lewis College (Sep. 18) to be voted RMAC Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career. The midfielder has made her shots count this season with eight of her 10 shots going on goal to register a shots on goal percentage of .800.

Making her third appearance on the RMAC All-Academic team, Makenna Fowler posts a 3.939 GPA as a Political Science major for her honor roll selection. One of six Mountain Lions to surpass 1,000 minutes on the pitch this season (1,342), Fowler has made her presence known to opposing offenses by helping limit them to 0.68 goals per game. The Arvada, Colo. native has been a consistent piece on the field with 10 games of playing the full 90 minutes, including a six-game stretch from Sep. 3-Sep. 29 where she never left the field. Fowler also makes contributions to the offensive side of the ball by recording one assist and adding three shots with two landing on goal.

Redshirt junior Kaitlin Hinkle garners her third career RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll selection after turning in a 3.887 GPA as a Nursing major. A team captain and four-year student-athlete of the program, Hinkle has continued to make a difference on the pitch by netting six goals and recording four assists in 17 games. Hinkle has joined Estrada in notching two braces this season as the Pueblo, Colo. native has registered an impressive seven braces in her career. The forward adds two game-winning goals on the year, including the 2-1 game-winner over Fort Lewis on Sunday with four seconds left to send the Mountain Lions to the RMAC Semifinals. This season, Hinkle has racked up her 16 points, 19 shots, and eight shots on goal in 867 minutes.

A redshirt junior from Colorado Springs, Colo., Jade Kinsey makes her way onto the RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll with a 3.871 GPA as a Sociology major. Kinsey has been an anchor for the UCCS backline by starting in all 19 games for the Mountain Lions while logging the fourth most minutes on the team (1,523) to help boast 11 shutouts on the season. At the center back position, Kinsey has played full time in 11 different games while playing a hand in the Mountain Lions holding the opposition to three shots on goal or less in nine games.

Leading the team in points while boasting a 3.842 GPA as a Biology/Biomedical Science major is sophomore Sydney Lasater. A key playmaker on the Mountain Lions' attack, Lasater has worked her name into the RMAC Leaderboard in most offensive categories by ranking third in shots per game (2.61), shots on goal per game (1.44), and assists (eight) while tying for eighth in total points (18). In 18 games and 17 starts this season, Lasater has tallied up 47 shots and a team-high 26 shots on goal as the Colorado Springs, Colo. native has found the back of the net five different times this season with three of her goals going down as game-winners to rank her tied for the seventh most among the RMAC.

From Colorado Springs, Colo. sophomore Jadyn LeDoux lands her first RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll selection by registering a 3.337 GPA as a Nursing major. This season, LeDoux has seen action in 18 games where she has paced the Mountain Lions with six goals scored in a total of 706 minutes on the pitch, giving her a share of the fifth most goals scored in the RMAC. The forward has made her presence known with a .630 shots on goal percentage off 17 shots on frame and a combined 27 shots as LeDoux adds four assists to tie for the seventh most points in the conference (16). On Oct. 2, in a road match against Black Hills State University, LeDoux landed her name in the program record books with a four-goal performance to tie Anna Gregg for the most goals scored in a single game.

Representing the Mountain Lion defense on the conference honor roll is redshirt sophomore and Nursing major Leikela Lunt. A native of Castro Valley, Calif., Lunt has worked to a 3.811 GPA in the classroom while notching 238 minutes of action in seven games and one start in 2022. Lunt has aided a UCCS backline to five shutout wins with the defender tallying more than 30 minutes in four matches, including a season-high 67 minutes in a 5-0 shutout of Black Hills State where Lunt and the Mountain Lion backline limited the Yellow Jackets to three shots and one shot on goal.

An everyday starter for the Mountain Lions from the midfield position, redshirt sophomore Makayla Merlo (Broomfield, Colo.) shows her consistency in the classroom by earning her second consecutive RMAC Honor Roll selection with a nearly flawless 3.948 GPA as an Exercise Science major. One of five Mountain Lions to starts and play in all 19 games, Merlo has racked up the conference's third most shots (48) in 1,490 minutes of action this season. Her all-around consistency has led to at least one shot in 18 of her 19 games played as Merlo has scored 13 points with four points and five assists, ranking her tied for the fifth most assists in the RMAC.

An RMAC Defensive Player of the Week selection, redshirt junior Zoe Sims adds another RMAC accolade to her 2022 resume as the Business major posts a 3.952 GPA to land on the RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll. Sims has played an integral piece on the UCCS defense by starting in all 19 games while aiding the Mountain Lions in the team's 11 shutouts. Owner of the team's third most minutes (1,532), Sims has not only made an impact on the defensive side of the ball as the Colorado Springs native has tied her career high in assists (two) and points (four) this season. In addition to playing the full 90 minutes in 11 matches, Sims also adds her fourth career season of scoring one goal after netting a clutch score in the 3-1 win over Colorado Mesa University on Sep. 25.

From Odense, Denmark, sophomore Fie Steenberg registers a 3.833 GPA as undeclared to earn her first career conference honor roll selection. Coming fresh off her third goal of the season in a crucial 2-1 win over Fort Lewis College on Sunday, Steenberg has recorded seven points this season with a total of 20 shots and six shots on goal through 18 games and 16 starts this season. Steenberg has registered 1,128 minutes from the midfielder position and has recorded two 90-minute games after playing full-time in the 3-1 win against Southwestern Oklahoma State University on Sep. 3 and a full 90 in the 0-0 draw against California State Polytechnic University, Pomona on Sep. 11.

A midfielder out of Honolulu, Hawaii, Kelsey Takahashi receives RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll by boasting a stellar 3.965 GPA as a Business major. In 16 games and five starts, Takahashi has put up four points on two assists and one goal as the redshirt sophomore has landed nine of her 19 shots on goal this season. Takahashi has set new career highs for both shots and assists in 2022 as she went on to also set new single game highs in shots and shots on goal after firing off five shots with three shots on goal in the 5-0 win over BHSU on Oct. 2.

A three-time RMAC Goalkeeper of the Week in 2022, Alexis Walker adds RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll to the list with the redshirt senior earning a 3.896 GPA as an Exercise Science graduate while also currently earning her second undergraduate degree in Pre-Medicine. The program's newest record-holder in single season shutouts, Walker has collected 11 clean sheets on the year while holding the conference's second-best goals against average at .684. Her strong presence in frame has resulted in the RMAC's third-best save percentage (.806) with Walker representing one of six women's soccer student-athletes in all of Division II that have played 1,710 minutes in goal.

UCCS Women's Soccer will be back in action Wednesday night as the Mountain Lions get set to take on No. 3 seed Regis University in the RMAC Semifinals at 6 p.m. inside Mountain Lion Stadium. Fans can click HERE to purchase tickets for Wednesday's semifinal match.