DENVER – Recent history for the MSU Denver women's soccer team against Westminster and Colorado Mesa has been good.
 
But facing those teams, on the road, this weekend will be challenging.
 
The Roadrunners (3-4-3 overall, 2-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) play at Westminster (4-3-1, 2-1) on Friday at 7 p.m., and then travel to Division II No. 4 Colorado Mesa (8-0, 3-0) for a 3 p.m. game Sunday.
 
"Any team, when you're midway through the season, you push pause and look at which goals you are looking to achieve and how you can achieve them," MSU Denver coach Kat Mertz said. "Heading into this weekend, we want to be the best version of ourselves that we can be in order to accomplish those goals.
 
"These are both really tough opponents. We have a good history against them, but they are both well-coached and well-organized, and it will be a battle."
 
Last year, MSU Denver played Westminster to a 1-1 tie at home before going on the road and earning a 1-0 victory against the Griffins in the first round of the RMAC Tournament. MSU Denver was also a 1-0 winner at home against Colorado Mesa during the 2022 regular season.
 
Westminster, coming off a 3-1 home loss to a Regis team that beat MSU Denver 2-1 on the Rangers' home field, is led by
Necie Gubler (four goals, three assists, 11 points) and Cassidy Orr (5-0-10).
 
"They're a good team with a lot of quality players who like to run at you," Mertz said. "They have good pace up top. It will be a physical game, a hard game to win on their home turf because they have something to prove after dropping a game to Regis when they felt they were the better team."
 
Meanwhile Colorado Mesa, despite seeing two-time RMAC Player of the Year Lila Dere depart for Colorado, where she is seeing regular minutes off the bench, hasn't seemed to miss a beat.
 
"(Coach) Megan (Remec) has done a great job," Mertz said. "They really execute their roles well. Sometimes that's how soccer works – you lose an All-American player and others step up and work together and the team is better because they are working together rather than relying on one player. They have a committee of players getting goals, so give them credit."
 
Goals have been somewhat hard to come by for MSU Denver – freshman Monica Yoder has three of the team's nine – but opponents also find it difficult to score against the Roadrunners, who have yielded only 11 goals. MSU Denver is coming off a 1-0 loss Sunday to league-leading UCCS (4-0 in the RMAC), which is receiving votes in the national top 25 poll.
 
"Our players hungry to get back on the field," Mertz said. "It wasn't our best game on Sunday.
 
"We have to get back to what we're good at, being better on the ball and cleaner, and to pay attention to all the little details."