Weekly Release No. 7>

Colorado College opens a three-game Conference USA home stand this week when FIU and North Texas visit Stewart Field. The Tigers play host to the Panthers on Friday, Oct. 4, at 3 p.m. MT, and the Mean Green on Sunday, Oct. 6, at noon MT.

CC improved to 7-3-0 overall and 2-0-0 in C-USA with victories at East Carolina (1-0) and Middle Tennessee (2-0) last week and sit atop the West Division standings with six points. The Tigers are riding a five-game winning streak and have prevailed in all four of their home games so far in 2013.

FIU is 3-7-0 overall and 1-1-0 in league play after splitting a pair of decisions at home last week. The Panthers suffered a 2-0 loss to Charlotte on Friday, but rebounded to blank Old Dominion, 4-0, on Sunday. North Texas will carry a 7-3-1 overall mark into Friday night's game at Rice after going 1-0-1 at home during the first week of league play. The Mean Green played Southern Miss to a 1-1 tie and defeated Louisiana Tech, 5-0.

Colorado College won its first two Conference USA road games for the first time since joining the league as an affiliate member in 2006. The Tigers can equal the program's best overall start with a victory over FIU on Friday. Only the 2009 and 2011 squads each won their first three games. The 2011 Tigers began their C-USA slate with a 5-0-1 record, while CC opened the 2006 campaign with a 5-1-0 mark.

The Tigers moved up in the national rankings following last week's road victories. In this week's NCAA Women's Soccer RPI, the Tigers climbed 11 spots to No. 25. All three of CC's losses this year occurred on the road against teams ranked in the top 25 – No. 10 Denver (2-1 OT), No. 19 Colorado (1-0) and No. 22 Marquette (3-1). In the NSCAA/Continental Tire NCAA Division I Women's Central Region rankings, the Tigers moved up to No. 6 after being ranked behind Conference USA rivals North Texas, Tulsa and UAB last week.

Sophomore goalkeeper Kate Scheele recorded her fifth consecutive shutout last Sunday while extending her scoreless streak to 489.35. The last team to score on her was Marquette on Sept. 8. With seven clean sheets in 10 games this year, the sophomore keeper already has surpassed her total of four from the 2012 season when she became the first freshman to record back-to-back shutouts to begin a season since Geneva Sills in 2005.

Junior midfielder Kaeli Vandersluis set up all three goals for Colorado College last weekend. With just 11:55 remaining in Friday's C-USA opener at East Carolina, Vandersluis sent a cross to sophomore defender Sam Curran, who scored the game's only goal. Two days later in the 2-0 victory at Middle Tennessee, Vandersluis and Jessie Ayers combined for the game-winning goal in the 56th minute. It marked the fourth time this season the duo has clicked for the deciding tally. A little more than seven minutes later, Vandersluis set up an insurance tally by sophomore midfielder Alexis Long to complete the first multiple-assist game of her career.

Vandersluis has been involved in every game-winning goal during CC's current five-game winning streak, scoring one and assisting on the other four. She leads the Tigers with career highs of six assists and 10 points.

Ayers, the two-time reigning C-USA Midfielder of the Year, extended her scoring touch into the start of conference play. The junior All-American, who played for the Colorado Rapids Women during the summer, has struck four times during the last six games to provide a much-needed offensive boost. All four of those tallies were game winners, which is one more than her combined total of the previous two seasons.

With 15 career goals, Ayers now is tied with Cortney Kitchen for 25th place on the program's all-time list. She also ranks 33rd with 35 career points.

Colorado College wraps up its three-game home stand with a single game against the University of Tulsa on Saturday, Oct. 12, at 11 a.m. MT.