DENVER – It's time for an episode of Family Feud for the Metropolitan State University of Denver women's soccer team.
 
Yes, there's a 4:30 p.m. Friday matchup with a solid Colorado Christian team that is 5-5-2 overall and seventh in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference table at 4-4.
 
But some of the Roadrunners (8-3-1 overall, 6-2 and third in the RMAC) couldn't be blamed for looking ahead to Sunday's noon showdown with NCAA Division II No. 4 Colorado School of Mines (11-1-1, 8-0).
 
That's because squaring off on opposing sides, for the first time ever, are two pairs of sisters and the cousin of one of the sets of sisters.
 
MSU Denver's Brooklynn Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) and Jessica Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) are going head-to-head with Mines goalkeeper Shannon Mooney – Jessica and Shannon are sisters, and Brooklynn is their cousin. Also on opposing sides are Roadrunners midfielder Jaimy Sawaged (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) and her sister, Mines' Giselle Sawaged.
 
"We're making sure they know this weekend that the bloodline isn't what matters, it's the heart line," MSU Denver coach Tracy Chao said, laughing. "In what other world is that true? But right now you're a Roadrunner.
 
"You have to sort of disconnect that and use it as incentive and motivation to get after it. Hopefully it'll be a fun competition, but it'll be hard."
 
There are so many plot twists to this family affair that it's hard to sort them out.
 
Mines' duo, Shannon Mooney and Giselle Sawaged, are juniors, big sisters looking to keep MSU Denver's Jessica Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) and Jaimy Sawaged (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) in their place.
 
"It's definitely going to be a battle," Jaimy Sawaged (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) said. "Because my sister and I always talk about how we're going to go face-to-face on the field."
 
Said Jessica Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield): "I think it'll be more fun for Jaimy, because she gets to be with her sister (both are midfielders) while going against her. But it'll be fun for me if I score on (my sister)."
 
All three Mooneys played high school and club soccer together.
 
In fact, Brooklynn Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield), the cousin, and Shannon Mooney, the Mines goalkeeper, played together from age 4 until leaving for college. A rough estimate means that is hundreds of games, and possibly approaching 1,000 games, as teammates.
 
"It'll be weird," Brooklynn Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) said. "But it'll be fun. We both know how one another plays. It'll be interesting. It'll be hard, too, because she's good.
 
"We've always been really competitive with everything, even when we practiced together. I'd always try to score on her as much as possible and make fun of her when I did."
 
True to her cousin's word, Shannon Mooney is good: she leads the RMAC in goals-against average (0.31), save percentage (.886) and shutouts (seven) while playing nearly every minute in goal this season. She's the league's reigning goalkeeper of the week.
 
Mines' Giselle Sawaged is a preseason All-RMAC player who has recorded one assist this season.
 
By the way, just to add another level of connectivity, Mines' Mooney and Sawaged are roommates. So, naturally, Chao decided to have Jessica Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) and Jaimy Sawaged (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) room together as well.
 
"Best roommate ever," Jessica Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) said.

So now the Sawaged sisters and Mooney sisters have gotten to know one another as well.
 
"We haven't all hung out together, but there are times one of us will go to Golden to see our sister and the other sister is there," Jessica Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) said.
 
The Mooneys live perhaps 10 to 15 minutes away from one another, making the cousins more like sisters.
 
"I had three best friends in high school, and she was one of them," Brooklynn said of Mines' Shannon Mooney. "We always get together and spend every day of break together."
 
The Mooneys estimate that about 10 family members will be Sunday's game. Sawaged, whose cousin Louie plays for the MSU Denver team that will be in action at 2:30 Sunday, expects 20 family supporters.
 
All of that leads to the question of what kind of team gear each will be wearing.
 
Jessica Mooney's (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) father has been wearing this Mines hoodie to her games and she's not too pleased about it.
 
"My dad will definitely wear Mines – he went to Metro, but he doesn't have any Metro sweatshirts," she said.
 
Said Jaimy Sawaged (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista): "My dad is talking about how he is going to divide his Metro and Mines gear and decide which side to sit on. He's just playing games."
 
The first Mooney-Sawaged pairing wound up at Mines, in part, because of their interest in pursuing engineering degrees. Both Jessica and Brooklynn Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) are Roadrunners because of the school's outstanding aviation program, while Jaimy Sawaged (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) is studying exercise science at MSU Denver.
 
"Metro is the perfect fit for me, the academics and what I want to major in," Sawaged said. "My dad went to Metro. I knew I was going to play against Mines, so it was a perfect fit."
 
The Mooney cousins and Jaimy Sawaged (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) are all in their first season at MSU Denver – Brooklynn Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) transferred from Wyoming – and are making contributions. The Mooneys are starters, while Sawaged brings energy and leadership off the bench.
 
"Jessie's strength is her fitness and her ability to get up and down the sideline," Chao said. "She runs at a consistent pace. The more experience she gets, the more impactful she's going to be.
 
"She's a worker. She doesn't take a moment off, in training or in a game. We train more than we play, so to have that mentality in training is huge."
 
Both Mooneys typically handle the Roadrunners' corner kicks – the left-footed Jessica takes those from the right, while the right-footed Brooklynn takes those on the left – creating in-swinging balls on those set pieces.
 
Jessica leads the team and ranks second in the RMAC with six assists, many on corner kicks.
 
"Just because you can hit a ball, it doesn't mean you can strike it or put the right height and speed on it," Chao said. "She puts a really nice texture on the ball. She has the ability to float them in, drive them in. She sees it well enough to serve a really good ball."
 
Brooklynn Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield), meanwhile has one goal and is tied for second on the team with two assists.
 
"Brooklynn brings a sense of maturity and experience," Chao said. "Her composure on the ball is fantastic. I love watching her watch defenders come to her. Because she embraces the contact, embraces the challenge of seeing defenders challenge her, and she embraces the opportunity to get out of it.
 
"She can be a little cheeky and creative. And she loves contact. She won't back down from getting hit or being the one who is hitting."
 
Sawaged is also tied for second on the team with two assists, playing an average of 35 minutes while starting twice and appearing in every game.
 
"Jaimy is a ball of energy," Chao said. "She just has the ability to interact with anyone. She makes everyone feel special and comfortable. That's an amazing quality to have, especially on the field as a freshman. Because when she does get in, she is one of those players who can boost the energy for us.
 
"She has innate leadership qualities right now, so we want her to use them. When she runs on the field, I want her talking to everybody and getting the energy up. Great speed, works extremely hard."
 
So it's little sisters against big sisters on Sunday, with a cousin thrown into the mix.
 
"Hopefully it's sibling rivalry that infuses a little bit of fire," Chao said. "I know it's going to be that way for both sides, because they are looking at their little sisters and thinking, 'I'm the big sister.' Hopefully this is an opportunity for our younger sisters to go head-to-head with their older sister and compete really well."
 
As important as family bragging rights are, no one is losing sight of the significance of Sunday's game. And in fact the Roadrunners are focusing all their energy into Friday's game with Colorado Christian.
 
"It's game by game, never looking ahead," Jaimy Sawaged (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) said. "Tracy always says it's one by one. Finish one game before moving on to the next one."
 
But if they do make it to Sunday unscathed, it may represent a chance for the Roadrunners to move back into the national rankings – they have been ranked as high as seventh this year.
 
It would certainly strengthen MSU Denver's position in the all-important regional rankings, once the official NCAA version begins coming out.
 
"We've been talking all season about how we're going to play against each other," Jessica Mooney (Broomfield, Colo./Broomfield) said. "I always tell her that we're going to win. We're going to give them a run for their money."