New Mexico Lobos Women’s Soccer – in Mountain West Action
Friday: 8 p.m. (MT) at Fresno State. Sunday: 1 p.m. (MT) at San Jose State
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
If her teammates on the New Mexico women’s soccer team called her “Mom,” it would be a fair label. Alexis Leyba isn’t the oldest Lobo in the Kit Vela family of Lobos, but she is the only one with senior status in 2014.
The Lobo midfielder ought to petition Coach Vela to change the name on Senior Day to Alexis Leyba day.
“I would love to share going through my senior year with someone,” said Leyba. “I have Cassie (Ulrich) and Maddy (Madisyn Olguin) who started with me, but it’s different because they have so much more time than I do.”
Ulrich and Olguin redshirted a season. Leyba did not so her eligibility ends at the conclusion of the 2014 season.
“It’s exciting to be a senior, but sad to think about,” she said. “This team has been my life for four years now and soccer has been my identity for the past 16 years. You get to this point and you become very aware that it’s the end.”
Leyba came to New Mexico from Long Beach, Calif. She gets to go back to her California roots as the 2-3-0 Lobos open Mountain West action at Fresno State on Friday and then at San Jose State on Sunday.
The Lobos were picked to finish fourth in the Mountain West’s preseason poll. San Diego State was picked to finish first with Colorado College a strong second. Boise State was picked third in the 12-team race.
San Jose State leads the Mountain in goals-against average at 0.59 with four shutouts in eight games and has allowed five goals total. San Jose State has a 3-3-2 record while Fresno State has struggled to a 1-8-0 mark.
“We are so strong now as a team,” said Leyba. “We are all playing for each other. It’s been different this year with all the crazy changes we have gone through. We have some great combinations out there and great ideas, but now we need to finish it.”
Leyba said her parents plan to make all of her games in her final season – home and away. She is one of five sisters, but the only one not to have attended school in California. She is the first and only Lobo, but she also plans to be the first doctor in the family.
Leyba said she will apply to medical school probably a year after graduating from UNM. She says an application to UNM med school might is on the horizon, too. She wouldn’t mind hanging around her home away from home.
“I just love it here,” she said. “When I visited on my recruiting visit, I fell in love with everything. There was no doubt in my mind this was where I wanted to go and I committed before I left.
“There was just such an immediate emotional tie. Everything felt so right. I love the blue-collar attitude here. I’m not afraid to work and that’s what this whole environment is about.”
Vela’s philosophy is built around a blue-collar foundation that produces Lobos who can’t help but feel like family because of the sacrifices they make together.
“Alexis is philosophically a great fit for our program because she believes in hard work,” said Vela. “She has really grown as a player over the years and a lot of that has to do with her willingness to work. She is easy to coach.”
Leyba played in eight games as a freshman in 2011, but played in all 20 games as a sophomore. She played and started in all 21 games as a junior. She has scored one goal as a Lobo, but her job in the midfield is not geared around scoring. She has to defend and she has to transition the ball to the UNM forwards. She says her increased minutes are a product of confidence.
“You have to have and learn confidence,” she said. “I think it’s maybe the most important thing out there because everybody can play the game. You grow up and mature as a player and pretty soon you just go out and play and don’t have to think about things that much. That makes it so much easier.”
Leyba said she also has grown as a person and she believes going away to college has helped in that growth.
“I liked the fact that I went away and tried something new,” she said. “One of the things I have learned about myself is knowing that I’ll be OK anywhere. I could be anywhere and find things that are good for me. I have a confidence in myself.”
For now, Leyba is where she should be and where her Lobo teammates need her to be – in the midfield playing like a senior.