ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico women’s soccer team can’t be faulted for playing exciting matches, even if they make coach Kit Vela a bit tense.
Maddie Irwin struck from 25 yards out on a nice feed from Alexis Leyba just 80 seconds into the second half for the game’s only score as the Lobos (7-5-2, 5-2-2 Mountain West) defeated Colorado State 1-0 on Friday night at the UNM Soccer Complex.
The Lobos outshot the Rams (4-13, 2-5) by a 12-3 margin but were unable to create breathing room and made Vela wait until the clock struck 0:00 to exhale.
“It was a team effort. It was ugly at times,” Vela said. “I think what (the Rams) were trying to do was effective for them. We got a little spread out at times. But we played together. When we can come together as a group, anything’s possible.”
The Lobos had a 6-1 edge in shots in the first half, but the Rams came closest to scoring on a header by Megan Speed off a corner kick that hit the post.
Irwin settled UNM’s nerves just after halftime after the senior, Leyba, stole an inbounds pass and set Irwin up perfectly just outside the box on the left side.
“I saw a split between two (CSU) players, and Lex played me a perfect ball,” said Irwin of her first goal of the season. “Before the game, assistant coach Krista (Foo) was working with me on getting the ball and opening up to the other side, and that’s exactly what I did. I just saw the goal open up and it worked.”
UNM continued to put on the pressure, limiting the Rams’ chances of getting to junior goalkeeper Cassie Ulrich. It was the fourth shutout this season for Ulrich.
“A great goal by Maddie, but we could’ve had a few (others) in the first half,” Vela said. “We could’ve gotten frustrated and shut down. Instead we just kept going at it.”
The Lobos have won four of their last five games, all by 1-0 scores.
“It says a lot about our conference, when the games are this close and all the teams are competitive,” Vela added.
The win puts the Lobos in a position to climb within a point of second-place Wyoming (9-7-1, 7-2 MW) on Sunday as the conference season winds down to the final two games.
“It gives us a lot of good momentum,” Irwin said. “We know Wyoming’s good, but we’ve been doing really well. We just have to finish our chances.
“We’re working more as a team, figuring out how to get back, play defense, play offense – 11 up and back. We’re a really close team this year. It’s easy to throw yourself all in for them.”
Scoring Summary
New Mexico: (46:20) Maddie Irwin (Alexis Leyba)
Colorado State: none
Lineups
New Mexico: Ulrich (GK), O’Connor, Guice, Leyba, Chavez, Webster, Irwin, Ferrier, Cabrales, Coonrod, Olguin
Colorado State: McGinley (GK), Sweeney, Vaughn, Stauffer, Bertana, Ruder, Jochheim, Stone, Speed, Eckert, Arao
Notes
– Goalkeeper Cassie Ulrich’s shutout was the 13th of her career.
– She now has a scoreless streak of 173 minutes after her last scoreless streak of 419 minutes, 40 seconds was broken up against Utah State.
– The Lobos have scored eight goals in MW play, coming from seven different players.
Next up
The Lobos host Wyoming (which lost 5-2 Friday night at San Diego State) on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the UNM Soccer Complex. The game will be streamed live via the Mountain West Network at GoLobos.com. It is the Lobos Love Pink game and Senior Day.