Fueled by freshman Brittney Lyman's school-record five goals in the second half, Colorado College refused to be denied in its most important game of the season on Friday night. 

CC thoroughly dominated but needed to come from behind twice before handing the University of Texas-El Paso a 5-2 defeat in the teams' regular-season finale at Washburn Field. 

With one of their biggest victories since joining Conference USA as an affiliate member in 2006, the Tigers overtook the University of Memphis for second place in the final standings and earned a bye in the opening round of the C-USA playoffs next week. They'll head to Dallas with a 12-5-2 overall record that includes an 8-2-1 mark in league play, their best ever.

“We showed a lot of heart, character and persistence tonight,” head coach Geoff Bennett said after seeing his team out-shoot the Miners by a 31-5 margin. “It was fun to watch, exciting to watch. We just kept fighting and fighting. If we carry that kind of mentality and performance into the post-season, I think we can make some real noise in the Conference USA tournament.”

Colorado College will play in the league semifinals at SMU next Friday against the winner of Wednesday's opening-round contest between third-place Memphis and the host Mustangs, who finished sixth. Game time will be 7:30 p.m. (CT). The championship match is scheduled for 1 p.m. (CT) Sunday, Nov. 8. 

Lyman, a 2009 graduate of Arvada West High School, wiped out 1-0 and 2-1 deficits with her first two tallies before adding a natural hat trick to more than double her production for the season. Now the team leader with her nine goals overall this fall, she gave the Tigers their first lead of the evening at 69:16. It was her second game winner of the campaign, and came after a nice pass in the box from Emily Beans, who drew a pair of defenders toward her before making the feed.

No other CC player ever has scored five times in a game, much less in a single half. Lyman's second and third tallies came exactly two minutes apart less than six minutes after UTEP's Skye Schultz put the visitors ahead for the second time. The rookie forward then struck for No. 4 and No. 5 within a span of 84 seconds, at 84:02 and 85:26, to complete the record-setting performance.