Only minutes into its contest with Colorado Christian University, the Colorado School of Mines women’s soccer team found itself in a battle.
The Cougars opened the Sunday, Sept. 21, game with a pair of shots on goal in just more than two minutes of play, and the Orediggers’ leading scorer, Kayla Mitchell, had a one-on-one chance but pushed the ball wide left.
Three minutes later, Mitchell got a second chance and this time made good. The junior’s hard shot glanced off a Cougars’ player and into the net, putting Mines on top.
“It’s definitely an adrenaline rush. When you make a mistake, it always makes me think about it more because it’s not just me out there that I’m letting down. It’s the team, so that makes me want to do even better and work harder,” Mitchell said after the Orediggers came away with a 3-0 victory at Long Lake Ranch Park in Arvada.
“The score in the end, it comes down to the team winning … we win together, we lose together, we tie together. It’s a team.”
Elizabeth Oba and Kelsey Lang added goals for the Orediggers (4-1-2, 3-0-1 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference), who have posted three consecutive shutouts. One of those came Sept. 14, a double-overtime scoreless tie with then eighth-ranked Metro State College.
“No goals in 110 minutes of play is always very good for a whole team,” Orediggers sophomore goalkeeper Briana Schulze said.
Colorado Christian (3-5, 1-3) dropped its third game in a row, but the Cougars have gone up against some of the RMAC’s best in the early going. Alison Cox had 11 saves against Mines.
“We’re going toe-to-toe with all of them,” said CCU coach Tammy Wishard, adding that this was probably one of the team’s best overall games of the season. “We’ve struggled with finishing; we’ve had opportunities to score.
“We’re excited. This is probably the best group of girls I’ve had, so it’s just a matter of continuing to come together and really finishing hard.”
Mines is off to another fast start, just as it was in 2007, when the team won seven of its first 10 games and its first five conference contests.
The Orediggers eventually lost in the semis of the RMAC tournament, but returned the bulk of that squad this fall.
“I think that as soon as they discover how good they can really be, then they’re going to really jump up,” Mines coach Frank Kohlenstein said. “I think sometimes (they’re) a bit tentative just about how good technically they can be. Sometimes they rush themselves and don’t have all the composure that I know they have.”
The Orediggers put 14 shots on goal against CCU, and Schulze tallied seven saves on the other end of the field. The sophomore keeper has four shutouts this season after starting every game as a freshman.
“We do count on Bri a lot,” Mitchell said. “We’re also like ‘yeah, we have a strong person back there,’ but we need to play for her. She shouldn’t have to do all the work.”
With this being only the fourth year for the Mines women’s program, Schulze said the team is coming together and that everything should grow from here. With a deeper bench and plenty of balance, the Orediggers are looking for a stronger finish in 2008.
“This team, as with all the years previous, we have a lot of heart,” Mitchell said. “We are out here to stay here and we have the fight and drive.”