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UPCOMING GAMES: The Lobos (18-3-0) continue to add to their most successful season in the history of the program with last Saturdays win over Bradley, 2-1. Now the Lobos have to travel to the hotbed of college soccer with a trip to 18th ranked Saint Louis University. The Billikens (14-3-2) received a 1st-round bye after sweeping to their 3rd-straight Conference-USA title. The match is set for 6:00 p.m. (M.S.T.) on Wednesday, November 27 in Saint Louis, Mo.
Saint Louis Billikens (14-3-0, 7-2-1 C-USA)Location: St. Louis, Mo.Conference: Conference-USAHead Coach: Dan Donigan (UCONN, 88)Record at St. Louis: 32-5-2 (2nd Year)2001 Record: 18-2-02001 Conference Record: 9-1-0 (1st)UNM vs. Saint Louis: 0-1-0Last Meeting: 4-0 loss at the Air Force Academy on 9/18/88Top Goal Scorer: Jason Cole (18), 9th in the NationTop Assists: Kevin Wickhart (12), 7th in the NationTop Goalie: Martin Hutton, 0.84 G.A.A. in 19 gamesRankings: No. 18 in the NSCAA Top-25, No. 17 in the Soccer America Top-25, No. 16 in the Soccer Times Top-25, and No. 14 in the CollegeSoccerNews.com Top-30.Notes: The Lobos and Saint Louis have two common opponents from the 2002 season.|Team|Saint Louis Result|UNM Result||Southwest Mo. St.|W, 2-1 (9/13) h|W, 1-0 (9/22) h||Air Force|W, 4-2 (10/9) h|W, 5-1 (10/25) h| The last time the Lobos faced a ranked team was last year against SMU in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Lobos fell to the top-ranked Mustangs, 2-0, in Dallas, Texas. The last time the Lobos defeated a ranked team was a 2-0 win over No. 6 Cal State Fullerton on October 15, 1999 at the UNM Soccer Complex. The Billikens have one of the strongest traditions in college soccer with an NCAA record 10 national titles. They currently hold a 62-29-4 record in the NCAA Tournament and re making their 41st appearance in the 45 year history of the tournament. Saint Louis plays their home games in the 6,050 seat Robert S. Herman Stadium. The Billikens led the NCAA with an average attendance of 2,767 fans in 2001. This season SLU is averaging 1,944 fans at home games. In comparison, the Lobos were 15th in the nation last season, averaging 1,200 fans at the UNM Soccer Complex. This season the Lobos have upped their attendance to a 1,402 average per game. Web Site: www.slubillikens.com
Lobos In the Rankings: The Lobos received a No. 27 ranking in the CollegeSoccerNews.com Top-30 ranking last week. UNM is also ranked at No. 4 in the NSCAA Midwest Region poll. The Lobos were left out of the other three major polls in the final rankings.
Previous Rankings: The Lobos have only been ranked in two previous season. In 1992, UNM climbed as high as No. 17 in the Soccer America Poll for the week of October 20, 1992. In 1997 the Lobos earned their highest ranking in any poll when they reached No. 15 in the Soccer America Top-20 for the week of November 3, 1997.
Fishbein Named MPSF Coach of the Year: Head coach Jeremy Fishbein was named the MPSF Coach of the Year after leading the Lobos to a school record in wins (18-3-0), a share of the regular season crown with a 5-1-0 record, and the conference tournament championship. After spending nine seasons at the Division II level, Fishbein made the best of his first season as a Division I head coach.
Assist Man Lobo freshman Ricky Francis has assisted on the last four Lobo goals. He now has five on the season.
All-MPSF Members: Six Lobos earned All-MPSF honors this week including senior Junro Narita, sophomore Andrew Weber and freshman Ben Ashwill who were named to the first team. Sophomore Danny Bills, freshman Lance Watson and freshman Brandon Moss were named to the second team.
MPSF All-Tournament: The Lobos place four players on the MPSF All-Tournament team, including MVP Ben Ashwill, Junro Narita, Lance Watson, and Andrew Weber.
Leading The Way: Ben Ashwill finished the 2002 season as the leading goal scorer in the MPSF (12). As a team, the Lobos lead the conference in goals scored (38), goals-per-game (2.11), and G.A.A. (0.83) during the regular season. Andrew Webers 0.89 G.A.A. also leads the conference.
Weber Moves Up the All-Time Shutout List: Sophomore Andrew Weber recorded his sixth shutout of the season with the 1-0 win over San Jose State on Sunday, November 3. He now has 11 career shutouts and is all alone in fourth place on UNMs all-time shutout list. The career mark is held by Greg Hess (97) who scored 15 shutouts from 1994-1997.
Iron Men: The Lobos have two players who have played every minute in 2002, including sophomore Danny Bills and freshmen Brandon Moss.
Most Wins in School History: The Lobos are setting a new single season win mark with every victory. They had notched 14 wins in two previous season, 1994 (14-6-0) and 1992 (14-4-1).
Quoting Coach Fishbein: The experience we had last year is going to help us somewhat this time around, but the majority of out team playing this year is new guys. This is such a confident team. Regardless of who we play or where we play, our guys expect to win. Our goal was to go farther than we did last year so we still have some work to do.
Quoting Team Captain Javier Carrasco: We are on a different level when you get to this point in the season. Everyone has a good, solid program and we are going to have to go in there with the same mentality we have had all along. We still have not made a name for ourselves. This is only our second trip to the NCAA Tournament, but hopefully we can come out with another victory like we did last year and make a name for our program. We have a good team and we know that, but everybody has a good team from now on. I think we are ready for the challenge that is ahead of us.
Lobos in the NCAA TournamentFirst Round
November 23, 2001 – Dallas, TexasLobos 1 – Florida International 0
November 23, 2002 – Peoria, Ill.Lobos 2 – Bradley 1Second RoundNovember 25, 2001 – Dallas, TexasLobos 0 – Southern Methodist 29