DENVER – Think of the MSU Denver men's soccer team from the spring season.
 
Now multiply it by two.
 
The Roadrunners were low on numbers last spring, but return virtually every key player from that team while welcoming a recruiting class that is equal parts eclectic and electric heading into the opening weekend of the season.
 
"We've got a more competitive team that gives us multiple options in our attack and defense, which is awesome," MSU Denver coach Nick Kirchhof said. "We're able to rely on the whole group and not just the starting 11."
 
MSU Denver, picked to finish seventh in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, has a pair of highly-regarded foes lined up. St. Mary's (Texas), ranked No. 24 in the NCAA Division II preseason poll, comes to the Assembly Athletic Complex for a 6 p.m. game Friday before the Roadrunners travel to face Fort Hays State (Kan.) at 1:30 p.m. MDT Sunday.
 
St. Mary's, led by two-time Lone Star Conference Defensive Player of the Year Liam Morrison, is picked to finish third in the Lone Star Conference after going 6-3-1 in the spring season, while Fort Hays State – picked to finish second in the Great American Conference – is looking to extend its national-leading streak of appearances in the NCAA Division II Tournament to nine.
 
"We're always looking for quality opponents who are going to challenge us and potentially expose us," Kirchhof said. "St. Mary's and Fort Hays can both potentially do that. For us, being a young team, we want to play some of the top teams in the region to learn about ourselves a bit more and see where we stack up against more established teams in the area."
 
MSU Denver's list of newcomers includes Division I transfers Aidan Bates (Wisconsin-Green Bay), Hernan Ibarra (Robert Morris), Alec Nguyen (Campbell), Julian Simlin (Canisius), Jonas Votaw (UC Davis) and Tyler Welch (Liberty). Add in goalkeeper Ross Miller, a two-year starter at Division II Chowan (N.C.) with other talented transfers and newcomers, and the level of competition within the team has increased.
 
"With some of them, they just have more college games under their belt and have competed at high levels, at other Division I programs and top junior colleges, so maybe they won't have as much of the pre-game jitters as some of the other guys," Kirchhof said. "There's a little more maturity, and hopefully a little more confidence because they've seen some of these things, they've been through it and they know how to make adjustments mid-game."
 
Veterans such as Gianni Steijlen, Max Hand, Ian Oltman and Sam Funnell are also back in the mix, and the spring season saw a talented group of true freshmen actually lead the team in minutes – Aaron Biggerstaff, Adan Perez, Andres Arcila Saenz and Noah Hannula all played more than 500 minutes in the seven-game season.
 
"We were able to establish a style of play and they were able to learn about me and I was able to learn about them," Kirchhof said. "They're steps ahead, and they've been great about bringing the new guys along and teaching them some of the things that we want to do to be successful. They've been tremendous at buying in and having that belief in what we're going to do."