WSOC Weekly Release No. 10>

Colorado College looks to secure a share of its second consecutive Conference USA regular season championship and one of the top seeds for the league playoffs with a pair of games this week. The Tigers play host to Louisiana Tech University on Friday, Oct. 25, at 3 p.m., then travel to El Paso, Texas, for Sunday's annual showdown with UTEP at noon MT.   
 
CC improved to 11-3-1 overall and 6-0-1 in C-USA with a 4-3 victory at Rice and a 0-0 tie at UTSA last week. The Tigers, who are riding a 10-game unbeaten streak, are 7-0-0 at home this season and have outscored their opponents by a combined score of 19-2. Colorado College is 4-3-1 on the road, including a 3-0-1 mark in league play.
 
Louisiana Tech, which is third in the West Division with a 4-3-0 record, improved to 9-7-1 overall with home victories over UTEP (3-0) and Southern Miss (2-0). UTEP, which takes a 10-4-3 overall record into Friday's home game against UTSA, bounced back from Friday's loss to the Lady Techsters to record a 1-0 victory at Tulsa. The Miners are fourth in the West Division with a 3-2-2 mark.
 
Friday's meeting will be the first between Colorado College and La Tech. UTEP is clinging to a 6-5-0 lead in the series with CC, but the Tigers have won four of the last six encounters. For the fourth year in a row, Colorado College is playing at University Field where the Miners have won four of six previous meetings. The Tigers, however, prevailed in their last two games at UTEP.
 
CC ranks fourth in C-USA with an average of 2.0 goals scored per game and is tied for first with only 11 allowed. Junior midfielder Jessie Ayers is tied for fourth in the overall statistics with eight goals and tied for fifth with 16 points. Junior midfielder Kaeli Vandersluis leads the league with nine assists and is tied for ninth with 15 points, while sophomore midfielder Sarah Schweiss is second on the team with five goals and third with 14 points.
 
Sophomore Kate Scheele, who has started all 15 games in goal, leads C-USA with nine clean sheets. She is second with a 0.73 goals-against average and fifth with a .823 saves percentage. Scheele's shutout at UTSA gave her a two-year total of 13. She and senior Cody Kornack (West Hills, CA) also shared a clean sheet in the 2-0 victory over FIU on Oct. 4, giving the Tigers a total of 10 for the season.
 
It marks the third time one of head coach Geoff Bennett's teams have reached double figures, joining the 2009 and 2012 teams that also posted 10. This season marks the seventh time since 1984 that CC has recorded double-digit shutouts in a season. The record of 16 was set in 1986, while the 1985, 1987 and 1991 squads all recorded 12.
 
Next week, Colorado College plays host to Southern Miss on Thursday, Oct. 31, in the regular season finale for both teams. The 2013 Conference USA Championship begins four days later on Monday, Oct. 4, with a pair of first-round matches at Rice University in Houston.