DENVER – The MSU Denver men's soccer team wraps up its season Tuesday with a 3 p.m. home game against Regis at the Regency Athletic Complex.
Although the Roadrunners came up just short of their goal of reaching the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament, there is still plenty on the line on Military Appreciation Day.
MSU Denver has won four straight games and has a chance to win five straight for the first time since 2015.
"When I think of what we're trying to accomplish, my mind goes back to watching the 2007 men's soccer team get inducted in the (MSU Denver) Hall of Fame (earlier this year), and getting a sense of their commitment to team, hard work, and excellence," first-year MSU Denver coach
Hank Lewis said. "As we try to build a new legacy at the Regency Athletic Complex, we get excited about some of the numbers that represent how we finish the season.
"We would be proud to finish off having defeated two different teams who were in second place when we played them; or to finish off with 10 wins, which hasn't been done since 2016; or to finish off winning five games in a row; to finish off with players getting Academic All-RMAC honors; and then there are a few players in our team that I believe are worthy of postseason athletic honors as well."
The Roadrunners (9-7-1 overall, 7-5-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) are locked into finishing in seventh place in the RMAC, just missing the RMAC Tournament's six-team field.
MSU Denver defeated Regis 1-0 in overtime in a non-conference meeting at Regis on Sept. 13.
Regis (10-5-2, 9-3-1) is locked into finishing second in the RMAC and has a first-round bye. The game will still carry importance for the Rangers since they are trying to position themselves for a spot in the NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection if they don't win the automatic bid that goes to the RMAC Tournament champion.
The Roadrunners shut out three straight opponents during their current winning streak and had gone eight halves without surrendering a score until Westminster scored twice in the final eight minutes of a 3-2 win on Sunday.
The goal snapped a team scoreless streak of 399 minutes, 54 seconds. Meanwhile,
Alessandro Gentile was in goal for 386:33 of that streak and was less than four minutes away from breaking the school-record scoreless streak by a goalkeeper.
MSU Denver and Dixie State are currently the hottest teams in the league with four-game winning streaks.
"More than anything, it's been great to see the way the team plays, win or lose, down or up," Lewis said. "I think one of the bigger break points about finishing the season this way is that it represents a team that was very resilient and dug out of a hole below .500 and is sending off its seniors with something to be proud of. There's great excitement among the younger players for what the future holds."
