DENVER – Remember the good old days, back when MSU Denver played its home matches at the Auraria Event Center?
 
Oh, it still does? OK, got it.
 
For just the second time since Sept. 16, the seventh-ranked Roadrunners will play a match on their home court on Thursday and they'll double down with another on Saturday – and the opponents couldn't be much more intriguing.
 
Regis, ranked 12^th, makes the short drive over for a 6 p.m. Faculty & Staff Appreciation Night contest on Thursday, and No. 11 Colorado Mesa is the opponent on Saturday at 4 p.m.
 
"We're so excited to be home again for a little bit," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "I think we are a good road team, but this last weekend I think we finally hit a space where we were a bit weary from being on the road. It will be really great to be connected with our home crowd and fan base again."
 
MSU Denver, 15-4, finally saw its RMAC-record streak of consecutive regular-season league wins come to an end at 48 matches Saturday in a 3-1 loss at CSU Pueblo. It was the Roadrunners' eighth time away from home in nine matches.
 
This weekend's matches won't count in the league standings as this weekend is part of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's new scheduling arrangement with teams playing non-conference games against league opponents based on the strength of last season's finish.
 
MSU Denver, Regis and Mesa were the RMAC's top three teams last year, and playing one another will provide the teams with extra matches against teams of similar stature, and will also help them increase various statistical metrics used to determine qualifiers and seedings for the Division II South Central Regional Tournament. Regis and Mesa play one another at the Auraria Event Center on Friday.
 
"It's the first time we've done this, putting a competitive pod in the middle of the season," Glenn said. "We're excited about it, and it's what we need right now – to play top teams and get challenged in different ways. Obviously it will improve our standing for the regional, even though it doesn't count for the conference title. But we're hitting the end of October, which can sometimes be a bit of a lull, so this is exactly what we need."
 
MSU Denver already won its league match with Mesa, and plays at Regis in the match the counts for the RMAC standings on Nov. 4.
 
Despite its defeat last weekend, MSU Denver still shares first place in the RMAC with Regis at 8-1, and the Roadrunners need only to run the table to win the conference crown (Mesa is 9-2, CSU Pueblo is 8-2).
 
However, Regis (also 15-4 overall) is obviously a formidable foe.
 
"They're a tough, veteran team," Glenn said. "They return their entire roster from last season. Their setter is really aggressive and is setting a really good offense and keeping the ball very distributed. You can tell they've been playing together for a long time. They're versatile offensively and scrappy defensively. We'll have to play well to disrupt them."
 
Mesa, 19-2, beat Regis on Oct. 14, but was upset by Colorado Christian on Saturday. The Mavericks won't have Friday off like the Roadrunners do.
 
"That can always go either way," Glenn said. "It will be nice to have a day off for a short practice, rest and watching them play – at this point all know each other pretty well. But sometimes not having that day off can create some flow for you. They're going to be hungry to play us. Since we got them at their place, they're going to want to return the favor."
 
After losing to a league foe in the regular season for the first time since the 2020 season (played in early 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), and after losing in the month of October for the first time since 2019, MSU Denver is ready for some redemption of its own.
 
"Saturday was a good wakeup call," Glenn said. "We'd been on the road for a while and hadn't had a match that had really pushed us in a while, and as a result I think you saw a lack of urgency that is very uncharacteristic for us. We just weren't really engaged on the physical or mental side.
 
"But I think the team recognizes what went wrong, and they got back in the gym and started grinding hard and focusing on not just winning matches, but on championships behaviors that will help us win matches."