DENVER – With nearly all the offensive firepower and defensive prowess returning from a team that was oh-so-close to making major noise in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference last season, the MSU Denver women's soccer team will be looking to make a move up the ladder in 2022.
 
The Roadrunners open their season this weekend with two games in British Columbia, Canada, squaring off with host Simon Fraser on Friday at 8 p.m. MDT before sticking around and playing Saint Martin's (Wash.) in a neutral-site matchup on Sunday at 11 a.m. MDT.
 
And yes, the Roadrunners of 2022 will in many ways look very similar to the team that last season was 10-6-2 overall and 7-5 in the RMAC.
 
"It'll be the same concepts, and then trying to add in a couple more layers of defending in different rotations, attacking certain areas of the field more than others, and then really make sure that a set piece is an opportunity for us to score," MSU Denver coach Kat Mertz said.
 
MSU Denver returns 26 of its 30 goals and 18 of its 30 assists from last season.
 
Most notably having departed are Annie Rolf (two goals, seven assists) and defender Jordan Lewis (one goal), both All-RMAC first team and all-region second team honorees.
 
"Annie and Jordy and the rest of the seniors – that was a good group," Mertz said.
 
But MSU Denver returns its top its top five goal-scorers in Kailey Maness (five), Katy Coats (four), Jaimy Sawaged (four), Elisa Dean (three) and Elli Zimmer (three). Zimmer was an All-RMAC second team defender, while Maness and Coats were both honorable mention selections. Another decorated returnee is goalkeeper Kayla Caballero, who was All-RMAC second team last season and helped the Roadrunners surrender only 12 goals in 18 games.
 
A strong senior class featuring Coats, Dean, Sawaged and Zimmer, as well as long-time key contributors Miriam Caballero, Katy Harris, Riley Ostler and Paloma Teran, is rejoined this season by midfielder Luna Garcia – All-RMAC honorable mention in the 2020 season (played in the spring of 2021) and a number of other veterans.
 
But there has been an influx of new and talented players, too, for a Roadrunners team picked to finish fifth in the RMAC.
 
"The upperclassmen have done a good job, and some of them played over the summer and you can tell – they look really sharp," Mertz said. "And then we have a new group that has definitely come in with a lot of new energy and confidence. They're mixing well personality-wise and soccer-wise.
 
"They know we've got a big upper-class group, but they're learning as much as they can and trying to make their name known."
 
While MSU Denver finished seventh in the RMAC last season with 21 standings points, it was actually closer to first place (co-champions UCCS and Colorado Mesa each had 30) than it was to eighth (Fort Lewis had 11). And last season's regular-season league schedule included road games at five of the six teams that finished ahead of the Roadrunners – MSU Denver lost all five of those games by a total of only six goals, while beating the one top-six team (Regis) it played at home.
 
MSU Denver was 9-0-1 at home last year, and hopes to fare better when the schedule flips and all of those same RMAC teams come to the Assembly Athletic Complex in 2022.
 
"We like to play at home, and we've made it a challenge to our players to understand how to defend our home turf," Mertz said. "But we've got a big one on the road (early in the RMAC season) with Regis, and that last weekend on the road you've got to circle – because it's a really hard trip when you go to Western Colorado and Fort Lewis. So those games are big, too.
 
"But I'm thankful the other ones are at home, because it was brutal last year."
 
The one blemish on MSU Denver's home schedule last season was a 1-1 tie with Simon Fraser to cap the first weekend of the season. Simon Fraser, which finished 5-11-2 overall and 5-7-1 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, is picked to finish fifth this season in the GNAC.
 
"They'll be a really good soccer team," Mertz said. "They like to build, and they're very good pressing, very organized."
 
Saint Martin's was 4-14 overall and 3-11 in the GNAC last year and is the preseason choice to finish last in the eight-team league.
 
Mertz likes how the preseason has gone, though playing in Canada will create some obstacles for the first weekend.
 
"I'm happy with where we are," she said. "This weekend's games will be good tests for us."
 
The Roadrunners open their home schedule Sept. 2 with a 6 p.m. game against St. Edward's (Texas).