Rams face New Mexico State and New Hampshire at home this weekend

Colorado State Rams (0-2-1) vs. New Mexico State Aggies (4-0-1)
Friday, Sept. 1 | 1 p.m. MT
CSU Soccer Field | Fort Collins, Colo.
Coverage: CSURams.com/watch (MW Network) | Live Stats

Colorado State Rams (0-2-1) vs. New Hampshire Wildcats (3-1-0)
Sunday, Sept. 3 | 1 p.m. MT
CSU Soccer Field | Fort Collins, Colo.
Coverage: CSURams.com/watch (MW Network) | Live Stats

Colorado State Women's Soccer: Match Notes | Twitter

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – After opening the season with three matches in The Colorado Cup, the Colorado State women's soccer team returns home this weekend for matches against the New Mexico State Aggies and the New Hampshire Wildcats.

Fans attending Friday's soccer match are advised to park outside of the "A" section of the Moby Arena parking lot. Parking will be enforced by CSU Parking Services for that section of the lot on Friday.

This weekend's contests will be the second and third-ever matches held from the new CSU Soccer Field, which is located on the corner of Elizabeth and Shields Streets adjacent to Moby Arena and CSU softball's Ram Field. CSU (0-2-1) will face the Aggies (4-0-1) on Friday and the Wildcats (3-1-0) on Sunday, with game times for each matchup set for 1 p.m. MT. The Rams have never previously faced either opponent.

CSU has played one match at home, on the road and at a neutral site. In its home opener, CSU drew with then-No. 25 Colorado, 0-0, from the new CSU Soccer Field. New Mexico State is 2-0-1 in away contests this season, while New Hampshire dropped its only away match to this point in the 2017 season.

Live video for each of this weekend's contests will be available on CSURams.com/watch via the MW Network. Live stats will be made available for each of the Rams' matchups with New Mexico State and New Hampshire. Links to each may be found above, on the women's soccer schedule page on CSURams.com or on the team's official game day central page, which will go live the morning of each match.

Quickly…
- Freshman forward Taylor Steinke was the first Ram to score a goal in 2017, burying her first career tally in the 82nd minute at Northern Colorado (Aug. 24). Steinke is the second-fastest to her first career goal in CSU's five-season history.
- Colorado State returns 18 letterwinners from its 2016 roster. That ties for the second-most of any Mountain West program. Of those returning letterwinners, 16 have starting experience and seven were regular starters in 2016.
- CSU's top scorers returning from the 2016 season are junior Kaija Ornes (team-high four goals and eight points in 2016), junior Hannah Gerdin (four points in 2016; CSU career-record 16 points for her career) and sophomore Caeley Lordemann (10 points at Creighton in 2016).
- Overall, the Rams' 2017 roster features eight athletes that scored a goal last season: Gerdin, Alex Lanning, Lordemann, Ornes, Beth Plentl, Madisann Relph, Maddi Rodriguez and Janelle Stone.
- The Rams return all three players that accounted for a game-winning goal in 2016: Ornes (at Denver on Aug. 19), Lanning (vs. SIUE on Aug. 28) and Gerdin (vs. Nevada on Sept. 30).
- Among CSU's returning athletes is its most experienced goalkeeper, Paige Brandt. The senior ranked fifth in the Mountain West last season with 44 saves in conference play.
- Senior midfielder Maddi Rodriguez played 1,589 minutes last season, the most of any Ram returning for 2017. Rodriguez and Ornes appeared in all 19 matches last season, starting 19 and 18, respectively.

Record Watch
- With her double-overtime goal against Nevada on Sept. 30, 2016, junior forward Hannah Gerdin moved into a tie with Gianna Bertana for CSU's career goals scored record (6). Bertana competed for the Rams from 2014-15.
- Junior forward Kaija Ornes is also nearing the top of CSU's career goals scored list, as her four goals rank fourth in program history.
- With another goal over the next three matches, freshman forward Taylor Steinke would become the fastest to two career goals in program history. Hannah Gerdin scored two goals over her first six games as a freshman in 2015.

Scouting the New Mexico State Aggies
- New Mexico State is off to a 4-0-1 start this season. NMSU was picked to finish seventh out of eight clubs in the WAC preseason coaches' poll.
- Most recently, the Aggies defeated Alcorn State, 8-0, in the highest-scoring contest in program history. The Aggies have scored in all but one of their contests this season. Notably, the Aggies defeated in-state rival New Mexico, 1-0, earlier this season.
- New Mexico State is led offensively by Audriana Chavez, who has a team-high four goals and 10 points. Senior Devin Hart has five points, as does Aileen Galicia. Hart has a team-high three assists.
- Redshirt freshman Dmitri Fong has made five starts in goal for the Aggies with 30 saves this season. Fong has already been named the WAC Player of the Week twice in 2017.

Scouting the New Hampshire Wildcats
- Following a 7-9-3 campaign in 2016, New Hampshire has started this season with a 3-1-0 mark. The Wildcats were picked to finish third in the America East this year, receiving one first-place vote.
- Five New Hampshire players have recorded a point in a match in 2017, and four Wildcats have scored at least one goal. The Wildcats are led offensively by senior Brooke Murphy, who has three goals (seven points) and one America East Player of the Week honor this season.
- Mia Neas has started for the Wildcats in goal in all four matches. Neas has 23 saves with a 0.75 goals-against average and a .885 save percentage.

Up Next
- The Colorado State women's soccer team plays one match at home and one on the road next weekend.
- CSU travels to 2016 NCAA Tournament participant SIU Edwardsville on Friday, Sept. 8, before returning home to host North Dakota State on Sunday, Sept. 10.

New Facility Marks New Era of Rams Soccer
- The Colorado State women's soccer program, which enters its fifth season in 2017, has called The Lagoon home for all of its matches in Fort Collins over the past three seasons. However, the Rams have a new permanent home beginning with the 2017 season.
- Beginning with its home opener against in-state and Colorado Cup rival Colorado on Aug. 18, CSU will now compete in a location that replaces the previous football practice facility. The Rams' new facility is located directly adjacent to Moby Arena and Ram Field at the intersection of Shields and Elizabeth Streets.
- Among the improvements made to the facility in preparation for the upcoming season was a topdressing process. Approximately 2,000 pounds of grass seed were transported in and spread evenly across what will become the pitch. The goals of that process include improving the thickness and leveling of the natural grass surface over time, as well as to allow for better drainage in adverse weather conditions.

Game Day Information for the New CSU Soccer Field
- Fans looking to attend a home CSU soccer match may park in the Moby Arena parking lot, conveniently located immediately next to the Rams' new facility. Entrances to the Moby Arena parking lot are located on Shields Street and on Plum Street.
- The new CSU Soccer Field is located adjacent to Moby Arena and CSU softball's Ram Field.
- Fans attending a CSU home match can expect seating and set-up similar to game days at The Lagoon, and are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs, blankets or other similar items to use for seating at a match.

Steinke Becomes Second-Fastest CSU Freshman to First Career Goal
- Freshman forward Taylor Steinke recorded the first goal by a Ram this season with a tally in the 82nd minute at Northern Colorado (Aug. 24). With that goal, Steinke becomes the second-fastest CSU freshman to her first career goal in program history.
- The only Ram freshman to score her first goal faster was Carly Seib, who scored the first-ever goal for the Rams against Lubbock Christian in the program's first-ever game in 2013. Hannah Gerdin also scored her first goal in the third game of 2015, but did so slightly later than Steinke (84th minute).

Rams Return Second-Most Letterwinners in Mountain West
- The Colorado State women's soccer team enters the 2017 season with perhaps its most experienced roster in its now five-year history. CSU returns 18 letterwinners from its 2016 squad, which ranks as the second-most of any team in the Mountain West.
- Of those 18 letterwinners, CSU also returns seven athletes that were regular starters in 2016. Additionally, 16 of those returning letterwinners made at least one start last season.

Two of Rams' Top Scorers Return for Junior Seasons
- Among the experienced athletes returning for the Rams in 2017 are two of the program's top scorers, junior forwards Kaija Ornes and Hannah Gerdin.
- Ornes, a native of Prior Lake, Minn., paced the Rams in both goals (4) and points (8) one season ago. The junior's four goals are the second-most scored in a single season in CSU's four-year history.
- Gerdin tallied four points last season on a goal and a pair of assists. The Colorado Springs, Colo., native is already CSU's all-time leading scorer with 16 points between her first two collegiate seasons. Gerdin scored a school single-season record five goals as a freshman en route to a CSU-record 12 points (five goals, two assists) her freshman season.

Rams to Face Trio of 2016 NCAA Tournament Participants
- Of the opponents on CSU's schedule for this season, three 2017 foes reached the NCAA Tournament in 2016. The Rams faced one of those opponents in their very first match of the season, hosting then-No. 23 Colorado in the very first contest in their new home facility. The two teams drew, 0-0, after two periods of extra time.
- CSU travels to 2016 NCAA Tournament participant SIU Edwardsville for a matchup on Friday, Sept. 8. The two teams also met last season, a contest the Rams won, 2-1, at The Lagoon.
- CSU faces off against their third 2016 NCAA Tournament participant on Friday, Oct. 6, when the Rams take on UNLV in Las Vegas. UNLV won the Mountain West regular season and tournament titles in 2016, and finished the year with a 16-4-3 record.

Hodgson and Stone Named Team Captains for 2017
- When the Rams take the pitch this season, they will be led by captains Taylor Hodgson and Janelle Stone. The pair of seniors were formally announced as team captains prior to the team's spring schedule on Friday, March 31.
- Each of Hodgson and Stone joined the Rams as part of their 2014 recruiting class, their first since the program's inaugural season in 2013. Hodgson has appeared in 40 matches with 12 starts in her career, while Stone has made 49 starts in 52 appearances. Notably, Stone led the Rams in minutes played (1,073) through 13 matches before being sidelined for the season with an injury.

Young Rams
- While CSU does return a bulk of experience from their 2016 roster, the Rams' roster is also filled out by a large group of underclassmen. Five athletes on the roster are seniors, meaning that 82 percent (23 of 28 athletes) of the team has junior, sophomore or freshman eligibility.
- Over half of the team is made up of either freshmen or sophomores. Those two groups make up the core of CSU's roster, as they combine to compose 61 percent (17 of 28 athletes) of the club.

Newcomers Join Rams' Core for 2017
- Joining the Rams' core of 18 returning letterwinners are 10 newcomers. Eight of those newcomers are freshmen, including three forwards (Ally Murphy-Pauletto, Emma Shinsky and Taylor Steinke), three midfielders (Kallie Clements, Karli Eheart and Alyssa Yoshida) and two defenders (Bailyn Furrow and Lauren Jones).
- Among the two transfers is sophomore midfielder Caeley Lordemann, who joins the Rams after scoring 10 points in her freshman season at Creighton. Lordemann's 10 points ranked third among Crieghton athletes last season.
- Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Hunter Peifer is set to compete with fellow goalkeepers Paige Brandt and Sydney Hall this season after joining the Rams from South Carolina. Peifer was 3-0-0 for the Gamecocks with a 0.29 goals against average.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results