DENVER – It's "California here we come," for the MSU Denver women's soccer team.
 
Or, for seven of the Roadrunners, it's "California here we return."
 
MSU Denver coach Tracy Chao is taking her team west for games Friday at 5 p.m. MDT against Cal State San Bernardino and Sunday at noon MDT against Cal Poly Pomona.
 
She has seven Californians on her roster, including five from the MSU Denver pipleline of Bakersfield.
 
"For me, as a coach, it's about being able to take our team and show them different parts of the country," Chao said. "Every year we try to take a flight somewhere, and we like to change it up and have a different travel destination. With the California players we get, it's nice to be able to take them somewhere closer to home.
 
"They get a chance to be closer to their families, and play two quality games."
 
Chao said that the family of goalkeeper Erica Torres is planning a team barbecue for Saturday. Chao's family will be able to make it over from Los Angeles for the Sunday game. Bakersfield is about 2 ½ hours away from the two schools, which are 40 minutes apart and are east of Los Angeles.
 
But make no mistake, the Roadrunners are still looking at this as a business trip.

"Being on the road can be nice," Chao said. "The only focus is soccer. You are with your team. We have study tables, all the meals are together. We're managing every aspect of their day and their focus, so that's nice. It's a double-edged sword, keeping up with classes and all that. But it's nice to be able to keep in track of them that way."
 
Another key to the weekend is that it is the start of a six-game, three-weekend stretch of home games that also includes the team's first four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference games.
 
Despite giving up only two goals in three games, the Roadrunners find themselves at 1-2 after playing three games in five days. Still, there are plenty of positives to build upon.
 
"What I'm happy about is the foundation of our fitness and being able to compete for those three games," Chao said. "Each 90 minutes, the energy, the intensity and the focus was certainly there. We weren't just surviving for 90 minutes, especially the last game. That competitive drive in individual players and as a team was cool to see."
 
Cal State San Bernardino, picked to finish eighth in the 13-team California Collegiate Athletic Association is 0-2, after losing to Dixie State 6-0 and to Rogers State (Okla.) 2-0. Cal Poly Pomona is 1-1, but the Broncos knocked off Pacific West Conference favorite Point Loma (Calif.) 2-0 before losing to the PacWest's second choice, Concordia-Irvine (Calif.) 1-0. The Broncos will play host to the 11^th-ranked University of Colorado at Colorado Springs on Friday.
 
"It's both of their (home) opening weekends," Chao said. "Pomona returns about everybody and then there's a freshness with San Bernardino. I haven't had a team play against these teams, so that's different. There's a lot of unknowns, because we don't have any trends from previous matches with them.
 
"So how do we adapt and continue to do what we need to do in unknown territory?"
 
Jessica Mooney scored two goals and Hailey Mazzola had the third in MSU Denver's lone win, a 3-0 decision against St. Mary's (Texas). Despite a 1-2 record, Torres has an 0.67 goals-against average and an .846 save percentage. As a team, the Roadrunners hold advantages in shots on goal (24-13) and shots (58-27) over their three opponents.
 
"This week of training is a lot about the things that we need to continue to do and that we are doing well," Chao said. "And then build on things we need to continue working on, not getting complacent with things that, tactically, we are sorting out, and then getting repetition and being sharper in different areas of the field, especially the final third."