DENVER – Nobody said this was going to be easy.
 
And, yeah, it got a little harder last weekend.
 
But the MSU Denver men's soccer team still has a chance to return to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament.
 
"We knew we still had a chance this weekend, regardless of what happened last weekend," MSU Denver coach Nick Kirchhof said. "We thought we'd be in a better position, but still there's an opportunity. That's what's fun about soccer and that's what's fun about the men's side of this conference – we've come to the last two days of the season, and all but two teams are playing for a chance."
 
Realistically, it's probably going to take at least one win and a tie this weekend in a difficult regular-season ending road trip to No. 20 UCCS (10-3-4 overall, 5-2-2 RMAC) and No. 11 CSU Pueblo (13-3-1 overall, 7-1-1 RMAC) to have that chance.
 
The Roadrunners have been here before, though.
 
Last season, facing the same two teams at home, MSU Denver posted a tie against CSU Pueblo and a come-from-behind win over UCCS to not only reach the tournament, but to get there as the fifth seed in the six-team field.
 
Both opponents have improved from last season, though, and both are playing at home.
 
"From start to finish, they've been two of the top teams in the conference and the region," Kirchhof said. "It'll be a great test to see where we're at. We've played some good stuff and had some great moments this year, but we've just had some other moments where we haven't been tuned in, and it's cost us. The goal now is to put together a good 90-minute effort against UCCS on Friday and see what happens from there."
 
Heading into Friday's 7 p.m. game at UCCS and Sunday's 11 a.m. game at CSU Pueblo, the Roadrunners are 9-5-2 overall and 3-4-1 in the RMAC, which is good for 10 standings points and a seventh-place tie with Colorado Mesa, which also has 10 standings points but also has the tiebreaker advantage over the Roadrunners.
 
Regis, which tied MSU Denver in the league meeting this season, is in sixth with 11 points, but figures to be in good shape with games against ninth-place Fort Lewis and 10^th-place Adams State. However, Adams State just pulled off the upset of the season when it came to the Assembly Athletic Complex and knocked off MSU Denver 3-1 on Sunday.
 
So anything is possible.
 
Colorado Christian is in fifth place with 14 standings points, but also has a tough road trip to fourth-place Westminster (16 points) and Colorado Mesa. Mesa is at home, but also faces second-place and national No. 15 Colorado School of Mines before facing Colorado Christian.
 
Unofficially, one path that could put MSU Denver into the top six is to win twice to get to 16 points, with Christian losing twice (to stay at 14) and Mesa losing to Mines (and beating Colorado Christian) to sit at 13.
 
Or, if the Roadrunners pick up one win and a tie, that – unofficially – would do the trick in the same scenario, since they would be tied (at 14 points) with a Colorado Christian team they own the tiebreaker against. One upset loss by Regis on its road trip would also put the Rangers at 14 points.
 
If nothing else, based on last weekend, nothing can be ruled out.
 
After going 2-5 in Kirchhof's first season and 8-9-2 last year, the Roadrunners are still trending upward with just the program's second winning season since 2016 already guaranteed.
 
They'd just like to make it go further.
 
"This season has been a lot of learning for us," Kirchhof said. "When we had a lot of success, it was when we were working our hardest, limiting opponents' chances, and taking our chances. We've gotten into a little bit of a lull the past couple weekends, where we've been waiting and seeing instead of trying to assert ourselves.
 
"This weekend, the goal is to come in focused and control everything we can control and try to turn all the small factors in our favor. We have to learn how to win tight games in this conference. Last year I think we caught a couple of teams by surprise, but this year – based on what we did in the non-conference season, no one was surprised. They were prepared and took us more seriously – which is a positive. In our next phase of development, we just have to learn how to be prepared for teams that make it tough for us to score goals."