If there is one thing that the Colorado State women’s soccer team has proven during the 2016-17 season, it’s that they fight to the very end.
The ending for the Colorado State (3-13-2, 1-8-1 MW) will come on Friday when they travel to Laramie to take on the Wyoming Cowgirls (9-7-2, 5-4-1 MW) in what will be their final match of the season.
The Rams are coming off of a tough weekend at home that saw them drop matches to the third place San Diego State Aztecs and the University of New Mexico Lobos, by one goal.
Colorado State shouble be familiar with one goal games by now. Five of their losses and two of their three wins have come as a result of one goal differentials.
Despite the fact that the season hasn’t gone the way the Rams pictured, head coach Bill Hempen credits his team for always coming back to play with a good attitude.
“I am most proud of this group of kids because they haven’t missed a beat,” Hempen said. “To their credit, when they could have probably mailed it in, they still want to play. They want to play and they want to win.”
Friday will be no walk in the park for a Rams team that wants to end the season on a positive note.
The Cowgirls currently hold the sixth and final spot in the Mountain West conference tournament set to begin on Tuesday Nov. 1. As the standings currently sit, Wyoming would play San Diego State on Tuesday. A win over the Rams on Friday and losses from both Boise State and Utah State could put the Cowgirls into fourth place and shake up the seeding just prior to the beginning of the tournament.
“Since (head coach) Pete (Cuadrado) has been there they’ve been a very athletic team,” Hempen said. “If we don’t possess the ball a good bit we are going to be doing a lot of defending because they are going to get it their forwards as quickly as they possibly can.”
For a team plagued by untimely turnovers, possession may be hard to come by for the Rams.
“We’ve gotten good possession but we’ve also had some incredibly poor timing as far as turning it over,” Hempen added. “Knowing that that is a challenge for us, it’s just to make it a priority in the game.”
The Rams haven’t won a game since they defeated Nevada 1-0 in double overtime on Sept. 30. Since then they have gone 0-6-1 with the latest pair of losses coming from one goal deficits. The Rams are long overdue for a win.
While the CSU-Wyoming “Border War” rivalry exists in the remainder of the sports at CSU, Hempen won’t call this matchup a rivalry until his team gets their first win against the Cowgirls.
“It’ll be a rivalry when we get some sort of result against them”, Hempen said. “We’re just trying to knick that first one away and at that point it will become a legitimate rivalry for us.”
The Rams’ next chance to get that win against the Cowgirls will take place at Louis S. Madrid Sports Complex on Friday at 3 p.m.
Collegian assistant sports editor Colton Strickler can be reached at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @coltonstrickler
