DURANGO, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's soccer team saw their conference postseason hopes come to a close on Sunday evening as they were defeated by a score of 4-0 in their RMAC Semifinal matchup against the No. 1 seeded and No. 12 nationally ranked Fort Lewis College Skyhawks.
 
INSIDE THE MATCHUP
Final: (4) UCCS 0, (1) FLC 4
Records: UCCS (10-5-5, 5-2-3 RMAC), FLC (11-3-4, 6-3-1 RMAC)
Facility: Dirks Field |Durango, Colo.
All-Time Series: The Mountain Lions fall to 15-43-5 all-time against the Skyhawks.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• After Fort Lewis largely controlled possession for the first five minutes of Sunday evening's RMAC Semifinal matchup, UCCS opened up their offensive attack in the eighth minute with Alex Andersson putting a shot on frame that was saved by the Skyhawk's goalkeeper Lucas Martin.
• The Mountain Lions had two more strong chances to get on the board in the early portion of the match as Kolby Raineri found a gap in the defense in the 13^th minute, but fired his shot just wide left of the net. In the 20^th minute, Kaydon Zamora-Reeves found another break in the defense just outside the penalty box and fired a rocket towards the goal, but again the shot attempt was wide left with the match remaining scoreless.
• Fort Lewis had a pair of strong scoring opportunities of their own in the ensuing minutes as Aymaro Vargas had a free lane into the attacking zone in the 24^th minute, but UCCS goalkeeper Soren Russell charged forward to cut off the shot before it could create any damage. The Skyhawks had another close call in the 32^nd minute when Gabriel Legendre was fed a pass deep in the UCCS penalty box and fired a strong shot that was stopped immediately by Russell, again keeping the match in a 0-0 tie.
• In the 39^th minute, Fort Lewis would break through on offense to score the first goal of the game with David Citron sending a pass to Loic Jean-Baptiste, who dribbled through the UCCS defense and put his shot into the right side of the net for a 1-0 Skyhawks lead.
• The Mountain Lions had one more big chance at the net just prior to the halftime break as Andersson set up Peter Chang with an open shot at the net, but Chang misfired to the right as the UCCS deficit remained at one goal heading into the intermission.  
• UCCS went into the second half of play on the attack as they maintained possession of the ball in their attacking zone for much of the opening five minutes of the period, but the momentum would flip back in favor of the Skyhawks in the 52^nd minute when Russell was issued a red card for forcibly stopping the drive of a breakaway player, giving Fort Lewis a free kick from just outside the penalty box and forcing the Mountain Lions to play with just ten players for the remainder of the match. On the free kick, UCCS managed to keep the Skyhawks out of the net to keep the match at 1-0.
• After having a pair of unsuccessful shot attempts in the next few minutes, the Skyhawks broke through for another goal in the 59^th minute as Tomas Duenes played a corner kick into the box, where Jakob Larson was able to get a head on it and put it in the back of the net for a 2-0 Fort Lewis lead.
• The Skyhawks continued to take advantage of the Mountain Lions personnel deficit down the stretch as they added goals in the 67^th minute and 79^th minute to close out a 4-0 victory and advance to the RMAC Championship game. 

STATS FROM THE GAME

• The Skyhawks held advantages in total shots (22-16), shots on goal (12-4), and corner kicks (8-7).
• Raineri paced the Mountain Lions with five total shots, while Andersson recorded four shots and Chang and Lars Walczyk each tallied two.
• Raineri was also the lone UCCS player to remain on the field for the entire 90 minutes of Sunday's playoff match.
• Between the sticks, Russell notched five saves and allowed one goal across 52 minutes of action before leaving the game. Declan Domyan played the final 38 minutes in frame, collecting one save.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• With his 78^th game played of his five-year career, Raineri moves into sole possession of second place all-time in program history for games played. The graduate student forward also has played 5,940 minutes in his career, which sits as the fifth-most in UCCS program history.

UP NEXT

• The field of 40 teams for the 2023 NCAA Men's Soccer Championship will be announced on Monday, Nov. 13, with the official NCAA Selection Show being live streamed on the NCAA website at 5 p.m. (MT).

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As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 14 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics. 
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