UNM Women’s Soccer
This Week: Vs. Boise State (5-7-3, 2-4 MW), Friday, 7 p.m.; vs. Utah State (8-4-2, 4-1-1), Sunday, 1 p.m.
Location: UNM Soccer Complex
Live streaming (both games): GoLobos.com
Live stats: lobos.statbroadcast.com
The young University of New Mexico women’s soccer team now gets its second shot at responding to prosperity.
The Lobos, coming off two key road victories, return home in thick of the Mountain West race with two more big matchups this weekend at the Lobo Soccer Complex.
UNM, 5-4-2 overall this season, sits in fourth place in the conference with a 3-1-2 mark for a total of 11 points. The Lobos are coming off two huge road wins at UNLV and Nevada that pushed them into the top half of the conference race, seven points behind leader San Diego State (11-2-1, 6-0-0).
The Lobos opened the season with a win and a tie on the road but came home and settled for a loss and a tie after losing goalkeeper Cassie Ulrich to an injury.
“When you have a young team, every little obstacle is adversity,” Vela said. “But it’s nice to see us start to mature a little bit and we’ll see if we can keep that going.”
Ulrich returned for the games in Nevada and earned MW Defensive Player of the Week honors for pitching two shutouts.
Redshirt freshman center back Emily Chavez earned MW Offensive Player of the Week honors, netting both goals the Lobos had in the 1-0 wins against the Rebels and Wolf Pack.
“It was great for both of them, great for their confidence,” Vela said of the performances by Ulrich and Chavez.
The Lobos will try to ride their momentum into Friday night when they take on the Broncos (5-7-3, 2-4 MW).
Boise State has a couple of solid goal-scorers in junior Brooke Heidemenn and senior Shannon Schueren, both with five goals.
Utah State (8-4-2, 4-1-1) comes to town on Sunday and boasts the second-leading goalkeeper in the MW in junior Jeanie Woller, who has a 0.97 goals-against average. The Aggies have won four straight games in conference play.
“Two more strong, athletic teams are coming, and we have to be ready for two tough matches,” Vela said. “But I like where we are as a team. Our team is very bonded, very sister-like.”