DENTON, Texas – Midwestern State is the No. 3 seed in the South Central Regional of the 2026 NCAA Women's Soccer Championship and will play a first-round match against Colorado School of Mines, the No. 6 seed, at Pioneer Soccer Park in Denton, Texas, on Friday at 3 p.m.

Midwestern State is making its third straight and ninth overall appearance in the NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Championship. Midwestern State has never gone beyond the second round and has not advanced past the first round since 2016.

Midwestern State is 14-2-3 this season, but the Stangs are 0-1-2 in their last three games after West Texas A&M eliminated them in the quarterfinals of the LSC Women's Soccer Championship by winning a PK shootout, 4-2, after the team's played a 1-1 draw through 110 minutes.

The Mustangs are 1-5-0 in the all-time series with the Orediggers, who won the last meeting in Golden, Colorado, 5-0, in August of 2022. Midwestern State lost its last five meetings with Colorado School of Mines.

Midwestern State is outscoring its opponents 43-11 and boasts the third best goal differential in the LSC at plus-32.

The Mustangs are second in the conference with 2.26 goals per game, which is 26th in the nation. Fifteen different players have scored goals for MSU this season, and 15 players have recorded at least one assist for the Stangs.

Gonzales leads the team with 20 points. Gonzales has six goals and eight assists. Madison Brinkley has 18 points with six goals and six assists. Brinkley has earned a point in seven of her last 11 games with four goals and four assists in that span.

Sloane Sullivan also has six goals and six assists for 18 points. Sullivan has three goals and one assist in the last seven games for the Mustangs.

Binky Mendez has four goals and an assist for MSU, while Morgan Countryman and has three goals and three assists. Both players have nine points this season.

McKynzi Hailey and Ashlynn Knight have both scored three goals for the Mustangs and each has seven points. Sophie Ferro scored her third goal of the season in the regular season finale against DBU and has six points.

Bella Pillow has scored two goals for the Stangs. Six players have scored one, including Leeci Snyder, who has four assists this season. Bella Rose has a goal and four assists for MSU, while Ella Adams has a goal and three assists.

The Mustangs are averaging 2.4 assists per game and 6.9 points per game, which are both second-most in the LSC.

Goalkeeper Lauren Short made one save at UT Tyler for her 12th clean sheet of the season, which is a school record for a goalkeeper. MSU has set the school record with 13 shutouts this season. 

Short has the fifth-best goals-against average in the LSC at 0.59 with a save percentage of .796

The Mustangs are outshooting opponents per game, 19-8. Opponents have only managed 54 shots on goal. An opponent had not taken more than five shots on goal against MSU in 31 straight matches before West Texas A&M managed eight shots on goal in its 3-1 victory on Oct. 7. Dallas Baptist had seven shots on goal in a 4-2 victory to close out the regular season.

Midwestern State is averaging 6.9 shots on goal per game, which is third-most in the LSC.

Colorado School of Mines is 14-3-4 and finished third in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with an 8-2-2 conference record. The Orediggers won the RMAC Women's Soccer Tournament championship for the third consecutive season and the 12th time in program history. The Orediggers defeated Colorado Mesa University in the final, prevailing 4-3 on penalty kicks after 90 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute golden-goal overtime periods.

For the third consecutive season, Colorado School of Mines forward Bella Campos has been named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Women's Soccer Player of the Year. Campos, who is from Highland Village, Texas, leads the RMAC in goals (28), shots (131), and shots on goal (63). She leads NCAA Division II in goals per game (1.3) and points per game (3.1), while ranking second nationally in shots per game (6.2) and shots on goal per game (3.0).

Natalie Rouse earned RMAC Defensive Player of the Year honors for the third time in her career. The Orediggers surrendered just 20 goals this season while committing only 113 fouls, the second-fewest in the RMAC. Rouse has scored seven goals this season, including two in a 5-1 win over Colorado State-Publo, and she scored four game-winning goals for the Orediggers.  Rouse was also named the RMAC Academic Player of the Year.

Goalkeeper Keira Garcia started 12 games for Colorado School of Mines and has a 0.82 goals-against average with a .769 save percentage. Garcia is 7-2-2 with three clean sheets for the Orediggers, who posted five shutouts this season. Emma Thomas has played the last three games for Mines and is 2-0-1 with a 0.37 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage. Thomas made a career-high nine saves in her second career start against Colorado Mesa in the RMAC final.

Texas Woman's is the No. 2 seed and awaits the winner of the MSU vs. Colorado School of Mines match for a second-round encounter on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.