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CSU soccer grabs 1st win of season

Alex Graser, Staff Reporter

August 22, 2024

Collegian | Cait Mckinzie

Forward Sofia Coulombe (10) dribbles down the field with a Metro State player on her heels April 5.

Colorado State soccer beat Northern Colorado to grab its first win of the season.

The Rams won the game 3-0, going 1-1-1 to start the season. CSU struggled to find the net in the first half, having 14 shots but zero goals. The Rams poured it on with three goals in the second half.

Coming out of halftime, Mia Massey scored the first goal in the 62nd minute to get the party started. She was one of three Rams to score against the Bears. However, only one Ram was able to walk away with two assists. Kacie Laurie was able to bag herself a pair of assists in Greeley, Colorado.

Taite DeLange was the second Ram to get a goal, helping the Rams put a bit of cushion between them and the Bears — making a win feel so much closer.

Maggie Altman had a wild first half with six shots to make up most of CSU’s attempts. However, she was not able to find the back of the net to get any go-ahead goals, so she went into the locker room with nothing to show for her hard work. She was able to score the dagger that took down the Bears in the 85th minute to put a bow on the Rams’ win.

“We knew what we had to get done in that first half and it all came down to the execution,” Altman said. “You know the last little bit and having the whole team supporting behind me. It’s like I just needed to find the back of the net. So it felt really good to do so.”

The Rams only allowed three shot attempts and two shots on goal to make it a defensive spectacle.

“Anytime you can play in an environment like this — under the lights — and you’re the away team, I think it just kind of gives you a little chip on your shoulder,” coach Keeley Hagen said. “It makes you want to fight even that much harder, right. Because you’re not the home team. So, it was definitely an enjoyable environment.”

After three games, the Rams have faced a variety of talent from the Big Sky to the Big 10. They’ve put in some hard work against some good opponents and have been able to walk away satisfied.

“We love to train harder than we play in season,” Liv Stutzman said. “So getting to play those Big 10 schools is awesome. So, just getting a new type of competition you feel that obviously the Mountain West is a very special type of competition as well.”

The Rams head into their fourth game against California Baptist at 1 p.m. on Aug. 25 at the new CSU Soccer field, with a good handful of experience to lean back on to help them prevail.

Reach Alex Graser at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter at @AlexGraser5354

Interested in more sports content? Sign up for Ram Report here for weekly CSU sports updates!

About the Contributor

Cait Mckinzie, Photo Director

Cait Mckinzie is a second-year student double majoring in art and journalism and media communication. She is one of two photo directors for the 2024-25 school year. Despite growing up in Renton, Washington, Mckinzie knew she wanted to go to Colorado State University since middle school. She had only ever been to Colorado twice, but she visited campus once, and that was all it took. At first, there wasn’t much in Fort Collins that Mckinzie was familiar with. But in high school, she was the co-head of visuals for her school newspaper, so she applied to The Collegian as a photographer to get back into a similar environment. Mckinzie was first introduced to photography by her grandfather, who has been a photographer most of his life. After he gifted Mckinzie her first camera in her junior year of high school, she began to take any assignment she could for her high school paper to improve her skills. Of all the memories made in her first year at CSU, most of the interesting ones came from The Collegian. One Halloween drag show assignment, a lot of mentorship and a few months of practice later, Mckinzie found herself being offered the position of photo director for the next academic school year. Mckinzie is excited for another year at The Collegian and aims to continue learning and growing during her time as one of the photo directors.

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