COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs women's soccer team continues to earn national recognition, with Jade Kinsey and Makayla Merlo being selected to the D2CCA All-South-Central Region First Team.

The D2CCA Player of the Year award and all-region teams are nominated and selected by the region's sports information directors.

Dallas Baptist University's Taylor Tufts earned the D2CCA South-Central Player of the Year distinction, after a record setting year for the Patriots. With seven goals and a baffling 17 assists, Tufts owned an impressive 31 points on the season.

A redshirt senior from right here in Colorado Springs, Jade Kinsey has had a career season from the center-back position for UCCS, leading her to her first career All-Region selection. With career bests in goals, assists, points, shots, shots on goal, and game winning goals, Kinsey has been a big part of the Mountain Lions' success on both sides of the pitch. Graduating this fall with a degree in Sociology, Kinsey will leave the program playing more minutes than any player in program history as she currently sits at 5966 and will eclipse the 6,000-minute mark before the season concludes. Kinsey also sits second all-time in both games played and games started for the program, at 83 games played and 69 games started.

Broomfield native Makayla Merlo earns her third career All-South-Central Region selection, having also been selected to the first team in 2021, and the second team last season in 2022. This year, Merlo has continued to produce at a high level for UCCS out of the midfield, as she has paced the Mountain Lions' offense with a team high seven goals, four of which were game winners. Coupled with two assists on the year, Merlo's point total stands at 16 for the season, a mark that also leads the team this fall. Merlo, who graduates this spring with a degree in Exercise Science with a Strength and Conditioning emphasis, finishes her career with marks that rank in the top ten for every offensive statistic that is tracked by the program's record book.

The 13 members of the All-South-Central Region first team will now be placed on the national ballot for All-America consideration. The All-America teams will be released Wednesday, Dec. 6th.

Kinsey, Merlo and UCCS Women's Soccer continue their march in the 2023 NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Championship Tournament on Thursday, when they square off with Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rivals Colorado Mesa University. The match will begin at 5 p.m. in Grand Junction, Colo. with both squads vying for a spot in the national quarterfinal match on Saturday. For all tournament updates, and UCCS Women's Soccer news, stay tuned to gomountainlions.com.