DENVER – One of seven players set to go through Senior Day festivities, Bryce Montes has come full circle.

The midfielder experienced life at two different NCAA Division I programs before playing his final two seasons of men's soccer at MSU Denver.
 
"It's kind of like the ending of a book," Montes said. "I've gone to two prior universities and I've seen this done a lot of ways. It's weird to think about being on the other side of things. You don't really expect it to come so soon, and now it's finally here after five years.
 
"I'm back in my hometown and I'll be able to be with my family for this. It's really exciting to be able to end it on our home field, and I wouldn't want to end it anywhere else."
 
Montes – along with goalkeeper Alessandro Gentile, midfielder Yannick Schad, forward Vinicius Krusser, midfielder Danny Bautista, defender Niels Kool and defender Todd Gibbs – will be recognized before Friday's 1 p.m. Senior Day game against Colorado Christian at the Regency Athletic Complex.
 
"We have seniors who, as the season has gone on, have shown guys how to grind it out," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Hank Lewis said. "The RMAC is a unique conference. And to have younger players see the seniors put in the work they've needed to do to get it done was really important."
 
Friday won't be the Roadrunners' final game of the regular season, or even their final home game. After traveling to Utah for a 1:30 p.m. game Sunday at Westminster, MSU Denver will be back home for a rescheduled game with Regis at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
 
The three-game stretch offers MSU Denver (7-7-1 overall, 5-5-1 and eighth in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) the opportunity to stay hot and win its way into the six-team RMAC Tournament.
 
"We always go into the games wanting to win and thinking we're going to win," Montes said. "Now it's more that we need to do it. Anything can happen in other games, so we want to give it our best chance. If we walk away with nine points (three wins), then we gave ourselves the best opportunity we possibly could and you couldn't ask for anything else.
 
"We were pumped on Sunday (when the game with Regis was postponed), and we were pumped on Tuesday (when the game was postponed again). We'll be pumped every day for the rest of the week."
 
After returning from injury at midseason, Montes has played more frequently in an attacking position for the Roadrunners as a senior. His steady play on the back end was also pivotal last year, his first with the program.
 
Montes has scored the first two goals of his career this season.
 
"Everyone wants to score goals, but to actually score one was awesome," Montes said.
 
Said Lewis: "It's a cool thing for a Colorado guy to come back home and round it out with some goals that we important for us. And it's been a different role for him. He's a guy who has been a D-I guy, and he's had to embrace a certain role on this team.
 
"He's been very helpful for us on the field, and what has been invaluable has been his leadership off the field, being a guy who helps others understand how to do things. When he was coming back from injury, he went out and did extra fitness work. That showed guys the way to be."
 
Montes' path back home included previous stops at Lipscomb and Massachusetts-Lowell.
 
"Lipscomb wasn't the real college experience I was looking for," Montes said. "Then a good buddy of mine played at UMass-Lowell, and he told me to come check it out. I liked it a lot. They had a great group of guys. But then it just got to be too expensive. Coming home, my parents loved it because they get to see me play all the time now. This is my home state, and I know everything there is to do around here. It's definitely where I wanted to end up."
 
In five years of college soccer (he sat out one season), he's also played for four different head coaches. He chalks that up to a life experience.
 
"I've never come into a year steady, with my spot on the team," Montes said. "I've had to go out and work hard every day. Every new season I've had to impress someone else. It's good because I've never gotten too comfortable. I've had to work for my spot, and I've always played like that. It's been a good reminder for me that nothing is ever given to you."
 
Just named to the RMAC's All-Academic Team, Montes is already preparing for the future.
 
"I'm one semester into grad school, and hopefully in three more I'll be done and have a master's degree in business, and then we'll see from there what happens," he said. "It's going into the real world."
 
A capsule look at the rest of the senior class:
 
Yannick Schad, a three-time RMAC selection and twice an All-RMAC selection, has three goals and team highs of six assists and 12 points this season. For his career he has nine goals and 13 assists.
 
"This year may not have started the way he wanted because of injuries and things like that," Lewis said. "But somewhere around the middle of the season, we talked to him about just 'Showing them how it's done.' And you've seen a different gear in him. He's been dominating in games on both sides of the ball."
 
Danny Bautista, like Schad a team captain, is a four-time member of the RMAC's academic honor roll. He has two goals and two assists this season and five goals and five assists for his career.
 
"Danny represents everything that is good about being from a hard-working Frontier town, coming from a proud Latino culture and representing North High School," Lewis said. "Danny is a guy who you could see play for 10 minutes and understand his value. And then you take that 10 minutes and understand that he does that throughout the entire game. He'll run anywhere on the field. The goal that Jerry (Gutierrez) scored the last game (a 1-0 win over UCCS), Danny put his body on the line (he got a touch on the ball before being kicked in the face) to set it up. I was recruiting just recently, and (high school) coaches are still talking about him. You can't teach some of the things he does. You just wish you had three or four more guys like him."
 
Alessandro Gentile, who played only twice in two seasons after transferring from South Carolina-Aiken, has been MSU Denver's regular goalkeeper, compiling a record of 5-7-1 with a 1.41 goals-against average, four shutouts and a .786 save percentage.
 
"He's a guy who had played very little college soccer," Lewis said. "What's been impressive is that he's a guy who's been waiting for his time and who made the most out of what he had as far as his athletic gifts. He's been banging his body for four years. He has all the wear of a senior goalkeeper. So I commend him for putting the team ahead of his body. He's also been able to adjust, as a senior, and add a few more things to his game."
 
Todd Gibbs has been with the program for two seasons after transferring from Concordia-Portland (Ore.). Not only has he been a key defender, he also scored a big goal in a win at Adams State, a win that started the team's current streak of three wins in its last four games.
 
"He's an emotional, powerful voice on the field," Lewis said. "He's a guy who would run through that cement wall for you if that's what you needed. Having his booming voice on the field has been big. He's clearly a great athlete, but he's also refined his game to do what we need him to do in valuable spaces. If he doesn't score that goal against Adams State … I mean, there may be more beautiful goals, but that might have been one of the goals of the season for us, for what it meant to the team."
 
Niels Kool has become a regular defender late in the season after missing most of last season with an injury.
 
"He's always been a great character guy, but he has also continued to develop his game," Lewis said. "And he's found a way to have his game match what we needed. And what he's done the past few games has been invaluable. He's crafty and smooth on the ball, but he's also been really gritty. He's been very receptive to coaching. He's a very wise passer of the ball."
 
And Vinicius Krusser has shown an artistic flair this season after playing only sparingly last season after transferring to MSU Denver.
 
"Vinny is a player I wish we had more time with," Lewis said. "We've seen flashes of his brilliance. He stepped on in October and ignited our October Campaign with a big goal. He's a player who shows these amazing flashes. I credit him for staying with it and that says a lot about him."
 
That senior group, along with its teammates, will be fighting for a postseason spot in the three-games-in-five-days stretch.
 
"I think the energy among the guys is good," Lewis said. "The guys were raring to go Sunday. They know what we're up against. They know that any game that we lose makes it hard to get into the postseason. But I don't think that will affect them. They are going to play hard and play very technical ball the rest of the season.
 
"It's great to have the peak happen now. It's unfortunate that we've jelled as a team now, because there are a couple of games earlier that we wished we had back. But we know what we've got to do. I'm impressed with how resilient our guys have been. We've never gotten too low."