Dixie State posted its school single-season record ninth shutout victory of the 2018 season in a 2-0 road result at Colorado State-Pueblo Sunday afternoon at Gonzales Stadium. The victory, DSU's fourth-straight overall, moved the Trailblazers to 10-5-0 on the season, 6-5-0 (18 pts) in RMAC play and in sixth place in the conference standings with two regular season matches remaining.

Freshman Whitley Johns (Gilbert, Ariz./Campo Verde HS) recorded her third-straight two-goal outing, and scored for the fourth-straight start overall, as she accounted for both Trailblazer goals in the victory. The freshman struck late in the ninth-minute when she finished an Ambree Bennett (South Jordan, Utah/Herriman HS) feed with a blast to the back of the ThunderWolves' net. Then with 4:16 to play until halftime, junior Kamie Hunter (Hooper, Utah/Fremont HS) played a ball into Johns, who tucked in the chance to spot Dixie State its two-goal advantage.

A calling card for the entire season overall, the Trailblazer defense again stepped up big as the unit limited CSU-Pueblo (7-5-3/4-5-2 RMAC) to just three shots on goal (11 overall), with two of those chances coming after halftime. However junior netminder Nicole Rahman (Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes HS) was up to the task as she stopped all three shots on target she faced to post her fourth solo shutout of the year.

"It was a wonderful team performance today, we dug in hard and proved to be difficult to break down" said DSU Head Coach Gerry Lucey. "Very happy with the attitude and application today and we created a few quality opportunities. Whitley [Johns] stepped up again and helped provide the offense we needed to finish out the game. Defensively I was delighted with the commitment to stay focused."

Dixie State's shutout result was also the club's 13^th clean sheet in 15 matches overall (9-4-0), which also tied a program single-season record for most combined shutouts (13 in 2016). Meanwhile, the nine Trailblazer shutout wins this season eclipsed the previous record of eight set during the 2007 season.

In addition to the team records, senior defender Nichole Mertz (Springville, Utah/Springville HS) became DSU's career leader in matches played with 75 appearances (56 career starts – t-#10 all-time). Mertz moved past both Erin Beeston (2007-10) and Camille Jensen (2008-11), who both played in 74 career matches in their four years in a DSU kit.

Dixie State wraps up the 2018 regular season at home with two crucial RMAC matches played at two different venues this upcoming weekend. DSU opens the homestand vs. Colorado Mesa on "Senior Day" Thursday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m., followed by the regular season finale vs. Western Colorado on Saturday, Oct. 27, in a match played at Dixie High School beginning at 12 noon.