(MATCH NOTES - PDF)

OPENING TOUCH: Dixie State (4-1-0/0-1-0 RMAC) will finally wrap up on its season-opening seven-game road swing this weekend with a pair of crucial RMAC matches. The Trailblazers open the trip in Denver to take on Regis (2-2-2/1-1-0 RMAC) Friday afternoon at 4 p.m., at the Regis Match Pitch.  
    DSU will then travel to South Dakota for its first-ever match in the 'Mount Rushmore State" as the Blazers square off against Black Hills State on Sunday at 11:15 a.m., at Ronnie Theisz Field on the BHSU campus in Spearfish. Live stats and streaming video information for both matches can be found HERE.

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS: This week's games at Regis and BHSU will mark the first time that the Trailblazers have met either opponent on the soccer pitch.

COACHING STAFF: Gerry Lucey (LIU Post, 1994; 3-0-0 at Dixie State; 157-50-21 overall record) is in his first season as Dixie State head coach. Prior to his arrival at DSU, Lucey collected 153 victories over 10 seasons as a head coach at three NCAA Division II women's soccer programs, which included eight NCAA tournament appearances, three NCAA regional championships, and one NCAA Division II national championship won during his tenure at the University of Tampa in 2007.  
    Lucey is joined on the Trailblazer sideline by first year assistant coaches Freddy Delgado (Regis, 1997), and former Dixie State soccer standouts Laura Evans (Dixie State, 2007) and Juli Nield (Dixie State, 2006). 

NKOTB: After 11 years as a member of the Pacific West Conference, Dixie State embarks on its first season as full members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in 2018.
    The Trailblazers won one PacWest soccer title (2009) over their conference membership and posted a 92-44-5 overall record (.670) in 141 league games. DSU won nine or more PacWest matches in six of those 11 campaigns, including a program-best 13 matches (13-1-0) during its championship run in 2009.

TRAILBLAZERS PICKED FIFTH IN THE RMAC IN 2018: Dixie State was voted to finish fifth by the RMAC coaches in the annual preseason poll released by the league on August 15.
    Colorado-Colorado Springs collected 11 of a possible 14 first-place votes to claim the top spot in the poll with 163 points, while 2017 league runner-up Colorado School of Mines tallied two first-place nods and 153 points to squeak past defending champion Regis, which secured one first place vote and 152 points.
    MSU Denver claimed the fourth spot with 118 points, followed closely by DSU (117 pts) in fifth, Colorado State-Pueblo (115) in sixth, and Colorado Mesa (91 pts) claimed the seventh spot to round out the top-half of the 14-team poll.

LAST TIME OUT: Dixie State came away with a split of two road matches played last week against an old conference foe and an in-state rival. The Trailblazers began the week with a hard-fought 1-0 result at former PacWest foe Azusa Pacific on Sept. 13, which marked the first time DSU had beaten the Cougars in eight tries overall. The win was also the team's fourth-straight shutout win to open the 2018 campaign.
    Dixie State then made its RMAC debut at Westminster College last Sunday in Salt Lake City, however the debut did not go the way the Blazers had hoped as the Griffins handed DSU its first loss of the year by a 1-0 count. Westminster netted the game's lone goal at the 4:10 mark of the match, while DSU could not tally the equalizer in seven total shot attempts (four SOG) over the final 85-plus minutes.

2018 TEAM NOTES: Prior to the loss at Westminster, Dixie State had opened the 2018 campaign with four-straight road shutout victories, which tied for the best start in the program's NCAA era ... in DSU's first year of NCAA play in 2006, the program registered three consecutive shutout results on its way to a 4-0-0 start ... additionally, the Blazers' shutout result at APU tied for the longest shutout win streak in DSU's four-year era, a feat that has not occurred since midway through the 2012 campaign.
    Junior MF Kilee Lamb-Allsop (Smithfield, Utah/Sky View HS) scored her second-career goal (and second GWG) in the win at APU (9/13), which came straight off a corner kick that alluded the Cougar defense early in the 12th-minute ... Lamb-Allsop, along with a stout Blazer defensive unit anchored by senior Nichole Mertz (Springville, Utah/Springville HS) and juniors Alexa Ashton (St. George, Utah/Dixie HS) and Kamie Hunter (Hooper, Utah/Fremont HS), made that one goal stand as DSU combined to limit APU to five total shot attempts - none on goal.
    Junior netminder Felicity Tarr (Tucson, Ariz./Mountain View Marana HS) picked up the shutout win at APU and in the process moved into second place on DSU's career shutouts list (8) and into a tie for second place in career wins (16) ... Tarr also lowered her DSU career record GAA to 0.82.
    Ashton won DSU's first RMAC weekly award after she was named conference Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 4 ... Ashton played in all 180 minutes in Dixie State's first two wins and anchored a DSU defensive unit that surrendered a combined seven total shot attempts ... in all, Dixie State has given up only 30 total shots (9 SOG) through five matches this season ... junior GK Nicole Rahman (Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes HS) earned three victories in goal in her first three career starts as netminder, including ShO wins at CSU San Bernardino, at CSU San Marcos and at CSULA.
    Overall, Dixie State's defense is ranked ninth-nationally and second in the RMAC in GAA at 0.20, and is t-23rd nationally in save percentage (.889).
    Freshman forward Whitley Johns (Gilbert, Ariz./Campo Verde HS) made the most of her Trailblazer debut as she tallied a goal in each of DSU's first three games, including GWGs at CSUSB (8/30) and at CSULA (9/3) ... Johns, who also scored an insurance goal at CSUSM (9/1), is the first player in the program's NCAA era to score in the first three games of a season, and is just the eighth player to score at least one goal in at least three-straight matches overall.

UP NEXT: Dixie State finally opens its 2018 home schedule at Trailblazer Stadium next weekend as the Blazers play host to #11 MSU Denver on Friday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m., followed by a Sunday matinée (Sept. 30) vs. Colorado-Colorado Springs at 12 noon.