SAN ANGELO, TEXAS – The MSU Denver women's soccer team fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to the #3-seed Dallas Baptist Patriots, losing by a score of 2-1.

The Roadrunners came out firing to start the match with midfielder Jenelle Arenibas nailing a free kick off the cross bar in the fifth minute, but it was the Patriots who converted first. After receiving the ball in the center of the field off a goal kick, DBU got the ball to forward McKenna Vela on the left wing. Vela then played a ball into the box that got onto the end of midfielder Anne Louthan's foot and sent into the back of the net on her first touch in the eighth minute.

The Roadrunners would not find the back of the net until the second half when midfielder Brooklyn Gold put the team on the board in the 71st minute. Gold picked up a deflection into the box and danced around a pair of DBU defenders before sending the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal.

Heading into the last five minutes of the match, all signs pointed to overtime, as neither team could find the back of the net. As the clock continued to run out, the Patriots were able to go ahead once more on the Roadrunners in nearly identical fashion to their first goal with another Vela to Louthan cross into the box in the 88th minute of the game.

The final horn sounded in the 90th minute, ending the Roadrunners' incredible season.

"I thought we competed, and we played really well. I'm incredibly proud of our team in the sense of accomplishing it, getting into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 10 years, it was a good first-round matchup," said head coach Kat Mertz after the match.

This was the first time the MSU Denver women's soccer team had been back in the NCAA Tournament in 10 years, with their last appearance being in 2014. The team has had this goal on their list for a while, but they don't want to stop here.

"This year was a massive goal coming back in after 10 years," said Gold, "Moving forward, we have a lot of the same players coming back ,and we really want to keep that momentum going and come back next year and make it further."

Seniors Tessa Killmon, Taryn O'Brien, Kylie Bach, Maddy Rueter, Cam Castelan, Tessa Bretschneider, and Emily Sirois all completed their senior season. These seven seniors were an integral part of getting the Roadrunners back into the NCAA Tournament.

"They mean a lot," said Mertz about this year's senior class, "That's why you coach, to watch these young women come in and to see them develop and to see them grow, not only as a soccer player, but as adults and as humans. This class has been an unbelievable breath of fresh air; we've had highs, we've had lows, but the biggest thing that I would say this class has done is they really care about one another. They care about the team, they care about the culture, they care about how we put the team's needs first, but also respect one another. This senior class really paved the way and broke the ceiling."

"When I first got to Metro, I already was like 'Wow, this team is incredible,'" said senior forward Tessa Killmon. "The upperclassmen we had really paved the way for me, and to be in their shoes now and to be paving the way for the underclassmen is just a really good feeling. I could not be more proud of this team and more satisfied with my career knowing that we made it to this Tournament this year, it's just the cherry on top for me. To get to play with my best friends until November 22, that's just amazing."

So what's next for the Roadrunners?

"What's next is we go back to the drawing board, we've got to figure out what combination works. What I'm most excited about is that we have a lot of young players out here, and they've tasted this, you don't want to go back from it. You get hungry for more," said Mertz.

"I couldn't be more excited about the future moving forward."